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THE 


GOSPELOFCOMMON  SENSE 


AS  CONTAINED   IN  THE 


CANONICAL  EPISTLE  OF  JAMES 


BY 


CHARLES  F.  DEEMS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

PASTOR  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  STRANGERS 


NEW  YORK 
WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM 

13  Cooper   Union 
Edinburgh,  Scotland:    JAMES  GEMMELL 


Copyright,  1888,  by  Charles  F.  Deems. 


TO  THE 

REV.   DR.    GUSTAV   GOTTHEIL, 

RABBI  OF  THE  TEMPLE  EMMANU-EL,  NEW  YORK. 

AND  TO 

RT.   REV.    HENRY   C.   POTTER, 

BISHOP   OF   THE   DIOCESE   OF   NEW   YORK, 

WHO  PRESENT  EXCELLENT  TYPES, 

Wi\'E  OF  WHAT  JAMES  WAS  AS  AN  ISRAELITE 

AND  THE  OTHER  WHAT  HE  WAS  AS  A  CHRISTIAN 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED, 

WITH  PERMISSION,  BY  THEIR  FRIEND  AND  BROTHER. 

ITS   AUTHOR. 


PREFACE. 


Life  is  practical.  Men  need  plain  rules  for  their 
daily  guidance.  Plain  rules  depend  on  principles. 
Principles  are  abstract,  and  belong  to  the  domain  of 
philosophy.  We  owe  incalculable  debts  to  the  men 
who  work  in  this  department ;  but  they  are  cut  off 
from  the  sympathy  of  the  mass  of  mankind,  who  can- 
not appreciate  their  labors. 

There  is,  however,  something  which  can  be  appre- 
ciated by  us  all,  namely,  the  plain  teaching  of  those 
rules  by  which  daily  life  is  guided.  It  is  a  good  sign 
that  there  is  an  increase  of  books  on  ethics,  books 
which  can  be  understood  by  even  those  who  are  so 
unlearned  as  not  to  know  what  the  word  "  ethics " 
means. 

This  volume  is  in  that  line.  The  Hebrew  and 
Christian  Sacred  Scriptures  are  not  only  authoritative 
in  religion  ;  they  are  rich  in  ethics.  A  visible  life 
constructed  on  the  Decalogue,  the  Book  of  Proverbs, 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  Epistle  of  James 
would  fill  the  loftiest,  broadest  and  most  beautiful  out- 
line of  .manhood.  The  Epistle  of  James  has  always 
been  a  great  favorite  with  the  writer  of  these  pages. 
He  never  sympathized  with  the  estimate  once  placed 
upon  it  by  Luther,  who  called  it  an  "  epistle  of  straw," 
because  it  was  not  robust  with  theological  discussions 
like  the  Pauline  writings.     This  estimate  Luther  lived 


vi.  Preface. 

long  enough  and  grew  wise  enough  to  change.  That 
great  scholar  and  teacher,  the  late  Roswell  D.  Hitch- 
cock, LL.D.,  with  whose  friendship  I  was  honored, 
once  said  that  the  application  of  the  Epistle  of  James 
in  the  region  of  economy  is  that  which  alone  can  save 
our  civilization,  and  it  is  reported  of  the  third  Earl 
of  Balcarras  that  he  was  accustomed  to  express  him- 
self as  delighted  with  the  Epistle  of  James  as  "  the 
production  of  a  gentleman." 

It  seems  fitting  that  the  teaching  of  this  admirable 
Letter  should  be  so  expounded  as  to  be  adapted  to 
men's  surroundings  in  this  day.  To  that  task  the 
author  has  addressed  himself. 

While  everything  has  been  excluded  from  his  pages 
which  could  be  suspected  of  indicating  a  desire  to 
appear  learned,  the  author  feels  sure  that  all  real 
scholars  will  perceive  that  he  has  not  written  with- 
out research.  For  business-men,  workingmen,  busy 
women,  young  people  and  simple  souls  more  than  for 
the  learned,  this  volume  has  been  written  in  the  earn- 
est hope  that  its  perusal  will  quicken  the  conscience 
and  shape  the  life  of  the  reader.  No  Greek  in  the  New 
Testament  seems  so  beautiful  as  that  of  the  writer  of 
the  Epistle  of  James  ;  it  has  been  a  pleasure  to  make 
a  new  and  careful  translation  thereof  for  the  author's 
own  use  ;  this  he  has  interwoven  with  the  discussion 
of  the  text  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  know  nothing 
of  Greek. 

This  is  not  a  volume  of  sermons.  Ordinarily  that 
which  is  fit  to  be  preached  is  unfit  to  be  printed.  The 
rhetoric  of  appeal  to  the  jury  is  not  the  style  of  ad- 
dress to  the   court.     But  all  the  discussions  in  this 


Preface.  vii. 

volume  were  loosened  out  and  inflamed  for  the  pulpit 
and  delivered  in  a  series  of  discourses  in  the  Church 
of  the  Strangers,  in  New  York,  in  the  spring  of  1888. 
They  were  listened  to  by  thousands  of  hearers  from 
different  parts  of  the  country,  among  whom  were  some 
Israelites  and  some  Hebrew-Christians,  and  to  the 
frequent  request,  by  letter  or  otherwise,  from  those 
who  heard  is  chiefly  due  the  determination  to  publish 
this  volume. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  this  book  is  dedicated  to 
a  Jewish  Rabbi  and  a  Christian  Bishop.  Both  men 
have  been  long  known  and  highly  regarded,  and  each 
has  shown  me  valued  personal  kindnesses.  Each  gave 
me  permission  to  make  the  dedication  ;  but  I  think 
it  due  to  both  to  state  that  neither  knew  anything 
of  any  views  set  forth  in  any  portion  of  the  book, 
and  neither  is  at  all  responsible  for  anything  it  con- 
tains ;  and  I  think  I  ought  to  add,  each  was  too 
considerate  to  hedge  himself  by  even  requesting  the 
making  of  this  statement.  Each  knows  that  I  am  a 
Protestant  Christian,  and  believes  that,  while  I  fear- 
lessly announce  my  convictions,  I  am  incapable  of 
wantonly  assailing  anything  loved  and  revered  by  any 
sect  of  devout  Christians  or  Israelites. 

Church  of  the  Strangers, 
New  York. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

Introductory  to  the  Epistle  of  James,  pp.  13-27. 
Authorship. — Catholic  Epistles. — Epistle  of  James. —  The  Woniett 
at  the  Cross, — Perpetual  Virginity. —  The  Mary  and  Her  Sons. 

—  The  Lord' s  Brother.  —Sofne  Account  of  James. — Chaj-acter- 
istics  of  James. — Date  and  Motive  of  Epistle. — Present  Use 
of  Epistle. 

II. 
Introductory  Matter  of  the  Epistle,  pp.  28-66. 
Salutation. — A  Great  Man's  Modesty. —  The  Greeting. —  Trials  of 
Life:  A  Wrong  Theory. — Special  Sources  of  Trouble. — Joy 
in  Trials. —  What  is  Temptation? — Grounds  of  Rejoicing. — 
God's  Providence. — Effect  of  Trial. — "Perfect"  and  ''En- 
tire."—  The  Giving  God. —  What  is  Wisdom? — Every  True 
Prayer  Answered, — Doubts. — Specific  Forms  of  Trouble. — 
From  Low  to  High. — From  High  to  Low. — A  Higher  Thought. 

—  The  Faithless  Poor  cannot  Rejoice. —  The  Faithless  Rich  can- 
not Rejoice. —  The  Faithful  Rich. — Happiness  in  Trials. 

III. 

Temptation  to  Visionariness,  pp.  67-86. 
Unworthy  Thoughts  of  God. — Origin  of  Evil.— Not  in  God. — In 
the  Individual. — Heredity. — Environment. —  The  Genesis  of 
Evil. — "Drawn  Away"  and  "Enticed." — Companions  and 
Amusements. — Plan  of  the  Seducer. — A  Horrible  Picture. — 
A  Great  Error.— A  Great  Truth— The  Father  of  Lights.— 
The  Changeless  Father. 


X.  Contents. 

IV. 

The  New  Life  Versus  Fanaticism,  pp.  87-109. 
Regeneration. — Fanaticism.—  Sivi ft  to  Hear  and  Slow  to  Speak. — 
Slow  to  Wrath. — Preparation  of  Heart. — Listening  to  Preach- 
ing. The  Ingrafted  Word. —  The  Law  of  Liberty. — A  Mis- 
take as  to  Religion. — Religion  in  Character. — A  Life  of 
Beneficence. — A  Life  of  Purity. 

V. 

The  Temptation  to  Partiality,  pp.  110-132. 
Partiality  for  the  Rich. — Going  to  Court. — Evil  of  Partiality. — 
On  the  Side  of  the  Poor.— On  the  Side  of  the  Rich. — A  Reply 
to  the  Partialis t. — A  Great  Principle. — A  Necessary  Princi- 
ple.— A  Guarded  Expression. — Choose  Mercy. 

VI. 

Faith  and  Works,  pp.  133-150. 
Justification. — Paul  and  James. —  Theology   and    Ethics. —  The 
Practical  Test. — Facts  of  Experiettce. —  The  Case  of  Abraham. 

—  The   Philotheans. —  The    Case   of  Rahab.— Frederick    W. 
Robertson's  Illustration. — Archbishop  Whately's  Illustration. 

VII. 
Temptations  of  the  Tongue,  pp.  151-187. 
Fanaticism  and  the  Tongue. —  The  Tongue  in  Public. —  The 
Tongue  in  Private. —  The  Great  Responsibility. — Danger  of 
the  Tongue.— The  Mental  Tubercle. — A  Perfect  Man. — 
Tongue  and  Pen. — A  Publisher's  Responsibility. — .Satan's 
Tongue. — One  Untamable  Thing. — Religious  Uses  of  the 
Tongue. — Source  of  the  Evil. — ' '  Wisdom  "  and '  'Knowledge." 

—  Two  Wisdoms. —  Wisdom  from  Above. —  Characteristics. — 
A  Cheering  Promise, 


Contents.  xi. 

VIII. 
Demoniacal  Wisdom,  pp.  188-198. 
Fruits    Thereof. — False  Christs. — Evils  of  War. —  Whence  come 
Wars. —  The  Fruitlessness  of  Sin. — Prayer. 

IX. 

World LY-MiNDEDNEss,  pp.  199-233. 
Reproaches. —  The  Religious  Covenatit  a  Marriage. —  The  Love  of 
God  and  Worldly-mindedness. — ''Lover  of  the  World." — Holy 
ScriptU7-e  against  Worldly-mindedness. —  The  Holy  Spirit 
against  Worldly-mindedness . — God  is  against  Pride. —  True 
Conversion. — Submission  to  God. — No  Morality  Possible  to 
Atheism. —  Who  is  a  Moral  Man? —  What  is  a  Devil? —  Why 
Men  do  not  Submit  to  God. — Drawing  Nigh  to  God. — Case  of 
Abraham.  —  Case  of  Moses.  —  Case  of  Isaiah.  —  Cleansed 
Hands.  — Evil  Speaking . — Contradiction.  — Evil  Hea ring.  — 
The  Mosaic  Law. — One  Laivgiver. —  The  Restless  Spirit. — 
Self-confidence. — ''Deo  Volente." 

X. 

The  Sinfulness  of  Uselessness,  pp.  234-254. 
A  Principle  of  Varied  Application. — Sins  of  "Omission"  and 
"Commission."— Process  of  Descent. — Process  of  Ascent. — 
The  Acted  Parable. —  The  Destructive  Napkin. — Sin  in 
Purple. —  The  Last  Judgment. —  The  Nearest  First. —  The 
Implication  of  Altruism. — knowledge  Aggravates  Sin. —  7^he 
Money  Illustration. — Four  Ways  Open. 

XI. 

Impending  Judgment,  pp.  255-270. 


xii.  Contents. 

XII. 
The  Final  Theme,  pp.  271-322. 
Patience. —  Time  a  Factor.—  The  Sin  of  Grumbling. — Example  of 
the  Prophets. — Illustrious  Gentile  Sufferer. — Against  Oaths. 
—  Vows  in  Trouble. —  Temperance  Pledges. — Conjuration. — 
Profanity. — Its  Utt,r  Uselessness. — -Judicial  Oaths. — Prayer 
Cure. —  The  Early  Congregational  Order. —  Charismata. — 
Sickness  and  Sin. —  Visiting  the  Sick. — Confession. —  The 
Last  Sentence.  —  Truth. — Error. —  Creed. — A  Grand  Possibil- 
ity.— Covering  Sin. —  True  Liberty.  —  Immortal  Fame. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  COMMON  SENSE. 


I. 

Introductory  to  the  Epistle  of  James. 

THE  CATHOLIC  EPISTLES. 

IN  the  arrangement  of  the  earliest  collection 
of  Christian  literature,  the  Evangely  has  the 
precedence.  Then  follows  "  The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,"  containing  the  beginnings  of  the  his- 
tory of  Christianity.  That  wonderful  series  of 
letters,  written  by  the  Apostle  Paul  to  several  of 
the  earliest  churches,  contained  such  a  body  of 
philosophical,  ethical,  and  religious  teaching  as 
naturally  to  form  a  most  important  section  in  itself. 
Then  there  existed  the  writings  of  other  Apostles, 
having  equal  authority  with  the  writings  of  Paul, 
namely,  the  Epistle  of  James,  the  two  Epistles 
of  Peter,  the  three  Epistles  of  John,  and  the 
Epistle  of  Jude.  To  these  seven  was  given  the 
title  "  The  Catholic  Epistles." 

They  were  so  called  probably  because  they  were 
not  addressed  to  particular  churches,  but  to  the 
Church  at  large.     Even  the  second  and  third  of 


14  The  Gospel  of  Coniuion  Sense. 

John,  although  they  have  a  personal  address,  are 
so  constructed  as  to  be  edifying  to  the  whole  body 
of  Christians  everywhere. 

THE   EPISTLE   OF  JAMES. 

The  authorship  of  the  first  of  the  Catholic 
Epistles  probably  all  students  have  found,  with 
Neander,  to  be  the  most  difificult  question  in 
Apostolic  history.  The  difificulty  possibly  arises 
from  the  commonness  of  the  name  James,  or  Jaco- 
bus, among  the  Jews  at  the  time  of  Jesus,  and  the 
slightness  of  the  specific  notice  of  some  who  bear 
the  name.     Let  us  see  if  we  can  make  it  out. 

When  our  Lord  was  crucified  there  were  four 
women  who  were  witnesses  of  the  awful  scene, 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  and  her  sister  Salome, 
who  was  wife  of  Zebedee  ;  Mary,  the  wife  of  Clo- 
pas,  sometimes  called  Alphaeus,  and  Mary  Magda- 
lene. The  last  was  unmarried;  the  third  was 
probably  the  sister  of  Joseph,  and  so  sister-in-law 
of  the  mother  of  Jesus,  or  Joseph's  brother  may 
have  been  Clopas.  The  second  was  the  Mother- 
Mary's  own  sister.  Each  of  the  married  women 
seems  to  have  had  a  son  named  James.  Salome 
Zebedee  was  the  mother  of  James,  the  brother  of 
John ;  Mary  Clopas  was  the  mother  of  James  the 
Less;  and  our  Lord's  mother  had  among  the  sons 
and  daughters  born  to  her  after  Jesus  a  son 
named  James. 

Let  us  read  over  the  record  to  make  this  clear 
to  us.     John   19:  25,  reads  "There  were  standing 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Seftse.  15 

by  the  cross  of  Jesus  His  mother,  and  His  mother's 
sister,  Mary  [the  wife]  of  Clopas,  and  Mary  Mag- 
dalene." In  Matthew  27  :  56,  three  women  are 
mentioned,  "  Mary  Magdalene  and  Mary  the 
mother  of  James  [the  Less]  and  of  Joses,  and  the. 
mother  of  Zebedee's  children."  In  Mark  15  :  40, 
the  record  is  in  this  order:  "  Mary  Magdalene,  and 
Mary  the  mother  of  James  the  Less  and  of  Joses, 
and  Salome."     Luke  gives  no  catalogue. 

RELATIONS   OF  THE   WOMEN   AT   THE   CROSS. 

Several  interesting  things  are  to  be  seen  in 
these  passages.  They  settle  the  fact  that  there 
were  four  distinguished  women  at  the  cross.  They 
show  that  our  Lord's  mother's  sister,  His  aunt, 
named  Salome,  had  married  Zebedee  and  become 
the  mother  of  James  and  John,  so  that  John  was 
first  cousin  to  Jesus,  not  on  the  side  of  His  puta- 
tive father,  Joseph,  but  on  the  side  of  His  real 
mother,  Mary.  It  is  to  be  remarked  that  in  Mat- 
thew and  Mark  the  name  of  Mary  of  Magdala  heads 
the  list.  She  seems  to  have  been  the  dearest  person 
on  earth  to  Jesus.  Perhaps  John  was  next.  A  very 
lovable  men  was  he.  Like  all  very  lovable  men 
he  had  his  little  human  weaknesses.  With  all  his 
excellent  qualities,  the  record  represents  him  as 
irascible,  vain  and  ambitious.  Was  he  also  a  little 
jealous  .-*  He  puts  Mary  Magdalene  last,  while 
the  others  put  her  first.  He  places  his  mother 
next  to  the  mother  of  the  Lord  as  he  would  have 
placed  himself  and  his  brother,  the  one  on  the 


1 6  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Setise. 

right  and  the  other  on  the  left  of  the  Lord,  when 
He  should  come  in  His  glory  (Matt.  20 :  21). 
Moreover,  the  indirectness  of  his  manner  in 
speaking  of  himself  as  the  disciple,  "  whom  Jesus 
loved  "  (John  13  :  23),  comes  out  in  his  designation 
of  his  own  mother  as  Jesus's  mother's  sister. 

Now,  two  of  these  women  had  each  a  son 
called  James,  namely  Salome  Zebedee  and  Mary 
Clopas.  Was  either  of  these  the  author  of  the 
epistle  ?  It  certainly  was  not  James  Zebedee, 
who  was  beheaded  A.D.  44  or,  as  some  suppose, 
A.D.  41.  He  was  the  first  of  the  Apostles  who 
gained  martyrdom  (Acts  12  :  2).  James  the  Less 
is  mentioned  as  an  Apostle  by  each  of  the 
Evangelists  and  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  But 
there  is  still  a  third  James  mentioned.  In  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Galatian.s,  Paul  records  a  visit  which  he 
made  to  Peter  at  Jerusalem.  This  occurred  when 
Paul  had  been  converted  at  least  three  years. 
He  says  (i  :  19):  "  But  other  of  the  Apostles  saw 
I  none,  save  James  the  Lord's  brother."  "  The 
Lord's  brother,"  who  is  he  .''  Between  him  and 
the  little  James  does  not  the  authorship  of  the 
epistle  rest  .-* 

PERPETUAL   VIRGINITY. 

For  centuries  the  run  of  comment  on  the  fam- 
ily relations  of  Jesus  was  in  favor  of  consider- 
ing James  the  Less,  the  son  of  Alphsus  (who  was 
supposed  to  be  the  same  as  Clopas),  as  one  of 
those  called  the  "brothers"  of  the  Lord.     Great 


The  Gospel  of  Coinmoji  Sense,  \y 

ingenuity  has  been  expended  on  this  theory,  but 
nothing  could  sustain  it  a  moment  in  the  presence 
of  common  sense  if  there  had  not  been  some 
hypothesis  to  be  sustained.  That  hypothesis  was 
the  perpetual  virginity  of  Mary,  the  mother  of 
Jesus.  To  the  assumption  of  that  as  a  fact  was 
to  be  reconciled  the  existence  of  such  facts  and 
passages  as  the  following  : 

THE  MARY  AND  HER  SONS. 

Mary  and  her  "sons"  are  associated  in  frequent 
mention.  While  He  yet  talked  to  the  people, 
behold  "His  mother  and  His  brethren  stood  with- 
out" (Matt.  12:  46).  This  phraseology  shows 
that  the  relation  of  these  parties  to  Jesus  must 
have  been  generally  known.  In  the  next  verse 
it  is  recorded,  "  Then  one  said  to  Him  :  '  Thy 
mother  and  Thy  brethren  stand  without,  desiring 
to  speak  to  Thee.'"  In  Mark  3:31,  a  similar 
phraso  is  used  :  "  There  came  then  His  brethren 
and  His  mother,"  and  in  Luke  8  :  19,  the  very 
same  phrase.  At  the  beginning  of  His  public 
ministry  (John  2  :  12)  "  He  went  down  to  Caper- 
naum, He  and  His  mother,  and  His  brethren, and 
His  disciples."  All  this  represents  a  family,  a 
family  keeping  close  together.  What  have  the 
boys  of  Clopas  and  his  wife  Mary  to  do  with  this 
family  .'' 

We  find  that  James,  the  son  of  Clopas,  believed 
in  Jesus,  and  was  actually  one  of  the  Apostles  at 
a  time  when  the  brothers  of  Jesus  did  not  believe 


1 8  The  Gospel  of  Coniuwn  Sense. 

on  Him  (John  7  :  5),  among  whom  must  have  been 
His  brother  jAMES.  The  same  man  could  not  be 
at  once  an  apostle  and  an  infidel. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
there  is  a  simple  and  touching  description  of  the 
state  of  affairs  after  the  ascension  of  Jesus  into 
heaven.  From  the  Mount  of  Olives  the  Apos- 
tles returned  to  Jerusalem  and  established  a  sort 
of  Christian  community.  The  list  of  the  eleven 
Apostles  is  given  in  detail,  and  amongst  them  is 
the  name  of  "James,  the  son  of  Alphaeus,"  or 
Clopas.  Then  it  is  added,  "  These  all  continued 
with  one  accord  in  prayer  and  supplication  with 
the  women,  and  Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  and 
with  His  brethren^  Plainly  James,  the  son  of 
Alphaeus,  was  not  of  "  His  brethren." 

THE   lord's   brother. 

Returning  to  the  passage  in  Galatians  (i  :  19), 
we  must  recollect  that  Paul  knew  the  names  of 
the  Apostles  and  their  relations  to  one  another. 
He  went  to  Jerusalem  to  pay  a  visit  to  Peter,  "  to 
become  acquainted  with  Peter"  are  his  words. 
He  must  have  known  that  "James,  the  son  of 
Alphaeus,"  or  Clopas,  was  an  Apostle.  But  he 
says  that  he  saw  "  not  one  other  Apostle"  ;  then 
he  did  not  see  James  the  Less  ;  but  he  says  that 
he  did  see  another  distinguished  Christian  whom 
he  calls  "James,  the  Lord's  brother." 

In  face  of  this  record  resort  must  be  had  to  the 
very  contradictory  theory  that  somehow  or  other 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  19 

the  James  of  Alphaeus  was  so  a  member  of  the 
family  of  Mary  as  to  be  called  her  "son  "  and  the 
"brother"  of  Jesus.  If  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians,  Paul  had  written  "  Thomas,"  or  "  Bar- 
tholomew," or  "  Philip,"  or  any  other  name,  the 
same  ingenuity  would  have  been  expended  and 
with  the  same  result.  The  foolish  doctrine  of  the 
perpetual  virginity  of  Mary  was  to  be  maintained. 
It  was  founded  on  the  beHef  that  in  man  celibacy 
is  a  virtue,  and  that  in  woman  virginity  is  a  state 
of  sanctity,  and  is  superior  to  motherhood.  This 
bad  doctrine  has  done  much  to  pervert  the  ideals 
and  corrupt  the  morals  of  Christendom.  The 
opposite  must  be  taught.  Men  and  women  must 
learn  that  celibacy  when  it  is  of  a  man's  choice, 
or  a  woman's,  is  a  crime  against  God,  against  na- 
ture and  society,  and  that  the  man  or  woman  who 
passes  through  life  without  achieving  parentage 
has  been  living  in  sin,  unless  it  can  be  shown  that 
there  is  physical  disability  or  other  plainly 
marked  providential  hindrance.  This  pernicious 
doctrine  brought  weakness  to  Christianity  in  the 
earlier  centuries,  did  much  to  fill  the  middle  ages 
with  a  large  and  bad  crowd  of  unmarried  women 
and  men,  and  is  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  doing  a  vast  harm  in  circles  of 
married  as  well  as  of  unmarried  people.  Every 
pastor  in  a  great  city  who  has  the  intimate  con- 
fidence of  the  people  must  have  learned  that 
much  ruin  has  come  to  the  bodily,  mental  and 


20  TJie  Gospel  of  Coninion  Sense. 

spiritual  health  of  both  men  and  women  by  habits 
produced  by  the  belief  that  motherhood  was  a 
thing  to  be  avoided  or,  at  least,  that  virginity  was 
preferable  to  motherhood.  The  very  moment 
Mary  began  in  any  sense  to  be  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  she  ceased  to  be  a  virgin.  It  was  no  one 
other  than  the  Holy  Ghost  which  supplanted  her 
virginity  with  motherhood:  and  once  a  mother, 
she  would  naturally,  as  a  good  young  woman,  if 
she  lived  decently  with  her  husband,  become  a 
mother  again. 

The  most  natural  is  the  easiest  theory  in  this 
case.  It  requires  no  ingenious  twisting  of  the 
record  and  no  strained  explanation  of  any  passage 
in  the  Holy  Scripture.  Mary  had  at  least  seven 
children,  Jesus,  the  miraculously  begotten  who  is 
called  her  ''first-horn  son  "  (Luke  2  :  7),  four  other 
sons,  one  of  whom  was  named  James,  and  at  least 
two  daughters,  all  the  children  of  Joseph  by 
Mary,  and  begotten  in  lawful  wedlock.  This  is 
the  natural  reading  of  Matt.  13  :55,  56.  It  had 
been  a  hard  providence  to  make  Joseph  perpetu- 
ally childless  in  return  for  his  devoutly  beautiful 
behavior  under  the  trying  circumstances  of  Mary's 
condition  during  their  espousal. 

The  name  of  James  is  given  as  that  of  the 
author  of  this  epistle.  It  is  most  reasonable  to 
believe  that  it  must  have  been  one  of  the  three 
Jameses  intimately  associated  with  the  career  of 
our    Lord.      It    has   been    shown   that   it   could 


TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  21 

have  been  neither  John  Zebedee's  brother  James 
nor  James  Clopas,  called  James  the  Less.  As 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  had  four  sons,  the 
eldest  of  whom  was  named  James  and  called 
"  the  brother  of  the  Lord,"  all  historical  and 
moral  probabilities  point  to  him  as  the  author  of 
the  epistle. 

SOME   ACCOUNT  OF  JAMES. 

James,  "the  brother  of  the  Lord"  (Gal.  i  :  19), 
became  a  convert  to  Christianity  after  the  resur- 
rection of  our  Lord.  He  was  held  in  high  repute 
by  the  Jews  and  by  the  Apostles.  According  to 
Eusebius  (Eccles.  Hist.  2  :  i),  he  was  the  first 
pastor  (overseer  or  bishop)  of  the  Church  at  Jeru- 
salem, and  was  surnamed  TJic  Just  on  account  of 
his  eminent  virtues.  The  Apostles  all  looked  up 
to  him.  When  Peter  was  brought  out  of  the 
prison  to  the  house  of  Rhoda  (Acts  12)  he  sent  a 
special  announcement  thereof  to  James.  In  the 
council  held  at  Jerusalem,  probably  a.d.  53,  to 
settle  the  controversy  between  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas on  the  one  side,  and  certain  Judaizing 
teachers  who  insisted  that  the  Gentile  converts 
should  be  circumcised,  after  all  had  spoken  it  was 
James  who  gave  the  decision. 

The  importance  of  this  council  and  of  the  in- 
fluence of  James  will  justif}^  giving  space  to 
the  following  extract  from  Milman's  "  History  of 
Christianity"  (L,  403): 

"The  barrier  was  now  thrown  down,   but  Ju- 


22  Tlic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

daism  rallied,  as  it  were,  for  a  last  effort  behind 
its  ruins.  It  was  now  manifest  that  Christianity- 
would  no  longer  endure  the  rigid  nationalism  of 
the  Jew,  who  demanded  that  every  proselyte  to 
his  faith  should  be  enrolled  as  a  member  of  his  race. 
Circumcision  could  no  longer  be  maintained  as 
the  seal  of  conversion,  but  still  the  total  abroga- 
tion of  the  Mosaic  law,  the  extinction  of  all  their 
privileges  of  descent,  the  substitution  of  a  purely 
religious  for  a  national  community,  to  the  Chris- 
tianized Jew,  appeared,  as  it  were,  a  kind  of 
treason  against  the  religious  majesty  of  their  an- 
cestors. A  conference  became  necessary  be- 
tween the  leaders  of  the  Christian  community  to 
avert  an  inevitable  collision  which  might  be  fatal 
to  the  progress  of  the  religion.  Already  the 
peace  of  the  flourishing  community  at  Antioch 
had  been  disturbed  by  some  of  the  more  zealous 
converts  from  Jerusalem,  who  still  asserted  the 
indispensable  necessity  of  circumcision.  Paul  and 
Barnabas  proceeded  as  delegates  from  the  com- 
munity at  Antioch ;  and  what  is  called  the 
Council  of  Jerusalem,  a  full  assembly  of  all  the 
Apostles  then  present  in  the  metropolis,  solemnly 
debated  this  great  question.  How  far  the  earlier 
Apostles  were  themselves  emancipated  from  the 
inveterate  Judaism  does  not  distinctly  appear  ; 
but  the  situation  of  affairs  required  the  most 
nicely  balanced  judgment  united  with  the  utmost 
moderation  of  temper.     On  one  side,  a  Pharisaic 


TJie  Gospel  of  Coinnion  Sense.  23 

party  had  brought  into  Christianity  a  rigorous 
and  passionate  attachment  to  the  Mosaic  institutes 
in  their  strictest  and  most  minute  provisions.  On 
the  other  hand,  beyond  the  borders  of  Palestine, 
far  the  greater  number  of  converts  had  been 
formed  from  that  intermediate  class  which  stood 
between  Heathenism  and  Judaism.  There  might 
seem,  then,  no  alternative  but  to  estrange  one 
party  by  the  abrogation  of  the  Law,  or  the  other 
by  the  strict  enforcement  of  all  its  provisions. 
Each  party  might  appeal  to  the  divine  sanction. 
To  the  eternal,  the  irrepealable  sanctity  of  the 
Law,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  according  to 
Jewish  opinion,  was  solemnly  pledged  ;  while  the 
vision  of  Peter,  which  authorized  the  admission 
of  the  Gentiles  into  Christianity,  still  more  the 
success  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  proselyting  the 
heathen,  accompanied  by  undeniable  manifesta- 
tions of  divine  favor,  seemed  irresistible  evidence 
of  the  divine  sanction  to  the  abrogation  of  the 
Law,  as  far  as  concerned  the  Gentile  proselytes. 
The  influence  of  James  effected  a  discreet  and 
temperate  compromise  :  Judaism,  as  it  were,  cap- 
itulated on  honorable  terms." 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  JAMES. 
This  remarkable  deliverance  reveals  two  of  the 
striking  characteristics  of  James,  namely,  his 
strong  adherence  to  the  old  form  of  the  faith  in 
Judaism,  and  his  rare  common  sense,  by  which  he 
saved  the  new  form  of  the  faith  from  unnecessary 


24  The  Gospel  of  Conivion  Sense. 

collision  with  Judaism.  A  decision  which  pleased 
"  the  Apostles  "  (even  Paul  and  Peter  as  well  as 
the  others),  "and  elders  with  the  whole  Church," 
must  have  been  founded  on  a  common  sense  of  a 
very  high  order.  It  was  a  blessed  thing  for  the 
first  church  in  Jerusalem  and  for  early  Christianity 
among  the  Gentiles  and  for  our  Holy  Faith  ever 
since,  that  the  first  pastor  in  Jerusalem  was  not 
Paul,  nor  Peter,  nor  John,  but  the  wiser,  more 
prudent,  more  discreet  James,  the  brother  of  the 
Lord.  These  two  characteristics  of  an  ardent 
Jewish  sentiment  and  surpassing  common  sense 
appear  in  his  epistle,  which  is  the  first  in  order  of 
the  Catholic  Epistles,  and  is  addressed  "  to  the 
twelve  tribes  scattered  abroad."  That  it  was 
addressed  to  those  Christians  who  had  been  Jews 
rather  than  Gentile  Christians  shows  where  his 
heart  lay.  The  pastor  of  the  church  in  Jerusalem 
could  not  lose  sight  of  the  sheep  of  his  flock  even 
when  they  were  scattered  through  Judea  and 
Samaria  (Acts  8 :  i)  and  perhaps  still  further 
abroad.  They  were  endeared  to  him  by  the 
national  relationship,  and  bound  to  him  by  the 
bond  of  the  Faith,  "  the  faith  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Lord  of  glory  "  (2  :  i);  and  he  was  "a 
servant  of  God,  even  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ" 
(i  :  i),  and  was  sustained  by  the  hope  of  "the 
coming  of  the  Lord"  (5:7),  with  which  he 
sought  to  fortify  his  suffering  brethren  who  had 
fled  before  the  storm  of  persecution  then  raging 
in  the  Holy  City. 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sotse.  25 

The  pastoral  office  in  his  day  was  not  so  much 
one  of  authority  as  of  influence.  If  it  had  been 
the  former,  Paul  or  Peter  would  have  filled  it.  It 
appears  to  have  been  reached  by  personal  influ- 
ence, of  which  James  seems  to  have  had  much 
more  than  any  of  the  other  brethren,  and  on  that 
account  was  more  influential  and  more  useful, 
being-  more  free  from  dogma  and  more  pervaded 
with  the  spirit  of  persuasiveness. 

THE  DATE  AND  MOTIVE  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 

The  date  of  the  writing  of  the  epistle  is  uncer- 
tain and  unimportant  for  our  purposes.  From 
the  allusion  to  the  fact  that  his  readers  bore 
the  name  of  "Christians"  (2:7),  the  letter  was 
probably  written  after  that  name  was  given  in 
Antioch  to  the  followers  of  our  Lord  (Acts  11  : 
26).  But  it  must  have  been  ;-ome  years  after  that 
event,  and  indeed  even  after  the  Council  at  Jeru- 
salem, A.D.  53  (Acts  15),  as  the  presupposition 
of  a  wide  knowledge  of  Christian  doctrines  and 
terms  indicates. 

It  was  evidently  not  the  intention  of  James  to 
address  to  his  Hebrew-Christian  brethren  a  letter 
on  Christian  doctrine.  He  was  not  discussing  the 
nature  of  saving  faith,  but  he  was  discussing  and 
denouncing  an  unsaving  faith,  a  reliance  of  many 
of  his  brethren  on  the  fact  that  they  were  the 
children  of  Abraham,  which  made  them  feel  that 
that  was  sufficient  for  salvation  without  those 
good  works  which  are  always  the  product  of  sav- 


26  The  Gospel  of  Commoi  Sense. 

ing  faith.  It  seems  absurd  to  suppose  that  James 
wrote  to  counteract  the  teaching-  of  Paul.  A 
critical  examination  of  James's  epistle  does  not 
reveal  a  single  fact  which  suggests  that  the 
writer  had  in  his  mind  any  thought  of  anything 
that  had  proceeded  from  the  pen  of  Paul.  Indeed, 
there  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  seen  any  of 
Paul's  epistles,  and  very  probably  wrote  his  own 
before  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  written 
(which  was  not  until  A.  d.  6o),  certainly  before  it 
had  gained  any  circulation  among  the  early 
Christian  churches,  in  which  epistle  Paul  elabo- 
rately sets  forth  his  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith.  Indeed  it  would  seem  to  be  the  object  of 
James  to  bring  his  readers  to  such  a  living  faith 
as  is  set  forth  by  his  brother  Paul,  "a  faith  that 
workctJi  by  love  "  (Gal.  5  :  6). 

The  epistle  is  plainly  meant  to  inculcate  morals. 
The  writer  does  not  seek  to  reach  this  end  by 
setting  forth  a  systematic  ethical  treatise,  but 
rather  by  warning  his  readers  against  such  sins 
and  errors  as  they  would  naturally  fall  into  be- 
cause of  their  early  Jewish  and  late  Christian 
circumstances,  and  to  exhort  them  to  such  a 
course  of  holy  living  as  would  justify  them  to 
themselves  in  showing  that  they  really  had  such 
faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  made  them 
fruitful  as  well  as  unblamable.  It  was  an  effort 
to  lift  them  off  their  sandy  position  and  place 
them  on  a  foundation  of  rock.  Indeed  in  this 
epistle  one  is  constantly  reminded  of  the  Ser- 


The  Gospel  of  Co  anno  II  ^ense.  ij 

mon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  Apostle  seems  to 
have  been  a  very  close  student  of  that  wonderful 
discussion  on  CJiaracter  delivered  by  his  brother 
Jesus.  These  two  sons  of  Mary  were  much  alike 
in  some  mental  characteristics,  and  the  so-called 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  delivered  to  Jews  and  the 
Epistle  of  James  delivered  to  Christians  will  ever 
remain  the  most  valuable  text-books  on  morals 
in  possession  of  the  world. 

THE  PRESENT  USE  OF  THE  EPISTLE. 

Are  they  so  broad,  so  catholic,  so  ecumenical, 
so  free  from  the  swaddling  clothes  of  the  world's 
infancy,  so  suited  to  man  as  man  that  nineteenth- 
century  folk  can  have  benefit  from  the  study  of 
them  .''  We  believe  that  they  are,  and  that  the 
Epistle  of  James  especially,  more  than  anything 
else  in  the  New  Testament,  seems  as  if  it  might 
have  been  privately  written  A.D.  1 888  for  New  York 
and  London,  for  California  and  Germany;  as  if  the 
writer  had  taken  a  tour  of  inspection  among  the 
synagogues  and  churches  of  our  day,  and  written 
in  kindly  expostulation  and  exhortation,  to  turn 
his  Jewish  and  Christian  brethren  away  from  their 
errors,  and  confirm  them  in  a  large,  strong  life  of 
fidelity,  and  chastity,  and  charity. 

In  that  belief,  and  as  much  as  possible  in  the 
spirit  of  James,  we  make  a  study  of  his  epistle,  and 
shall  endeavor  to  draw  from  it  the  lesson  needed 
by  us  amid  the  cares  and  perplexity,  the  engross- 
ments, the  pleasures  and  the  pressures  of  the 
present  age. 


II. 

Introductory  Matter  of  the  Epistle. 

CHAPTER   I.,    I-I2. 
THE  SALUTATION  TO  HEBREW-CHRISTIANS. 

THE  salutation  bears  the  characteristics  of 
James.  It  is  terse,  full,  and  rhetorical. 
'^  James,  of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  the  bond-servant,  to  the  twelve  tribes  zvhich 
are  in  tJie  dispersion,  hail."  The  collocation  of 
the  words  shows  a  recognition  of  the  faith  under 
the  two  forms  of  Judaism  and  Christianity.  All 
that  was  divine  in  Judaism,  James  still  held  as  not 
being  at  all  weakened  by  his  faith  in  Jesus  ;  and 
his  devotion  to  Jesus  did  not  affect  in  the  slight- 
est degree  his  devotion  to  the  God  of  his  fathers. 
Indeed,  he  seems  to  suggest  the  thought  that  no 
conscientious  Jew  who,  in  the  spirit  of  his  father 
Abraham,  follows  out  the  teachings  of  Moses 
and  the  prophets  can  fail  to  become  finally  a  ser- 
vant of  God  by  being  a  servant  of  that  Jesus 
whom  God  has  christened,  anointed  to  be  Lord, 
the  ruler  of  the  world.  On  the  other  hand  no 
man  can  be  a  servant  of  that  Jesus  who  Is  the 
Christ  Lord  without  receiving  all  that  is  moral 
and  religious  in  the  monotheism  set  forth  in 
the  writings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  as  the 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  29 

sure  basis  of  any  growing  spiritual  life.  A  Chris- 
tian receives  everything  which  gives  divine  in- 
struction and  comfort  to  his  Jewish  brother. 
What  had  been  necessary  to  spiritual  culture  in 
the  earlier  day,  but  had  discharged  its  function, 
he  does  not  hold  binding  as  any  part  of  the 
ritual  or  spirituality  of  true  religion,  but  every 
intelligent  and  right-hearted  Christian  reveres 
those  stars  which  shone  before  the  sun  arose. 
Having  the  antitype  he  has  no  need  to  depend 
wholly  on  the  type  ;  having  the  fulfilment  he  has 
no  need  to  live  entirely  on  the  prophecy  for  his 
spiritual  growth,  but  he  reverently  studies  the  type 
and  preserv^es  the  prophecy,  seeing  that  the  con- 
stant comparison  of  the  fulfilment  with  the  pre- 
diction is  a  constant  strengthening  of  his  faith. 

It  would  really  in  our  day  seem  to  be  a  ques- 
tion whether  any  man  who  knows  the  Gospel  can 
be  a  full  and  faithful  servant  of  the  God  of 
Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  who  is  not 
at  the  same  time  a  faithful  and  devoted  servant  of 
Jesus,  God's  anointed  Ruler.  On  the  other  hand, 
how  can  a  man  be  a  full  and  faithful  servant  of 
Jesus,  the  Christ  Lord,  who  is  not  devoted  to  the 
service  of  the  God  of  the  children  of  Israel,  that 
God  who  anointed  Jesus  to  be  the  world's  Lord  } 
If  the  Israelitish  religion  be  considered  defective 
without  that  in  the  Christian  faith  for  preparation 
of  which  the  elder  faith  existed  ;  so,  utterly 
emptied,   not  only  of  all  power  but  of  all    life, 


30  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

would  be  the  Christian  religion  if  deprived  of  at».y 
of  the  spiritual  elements  which  vitalized  that 
religion  which  lifted  Moses  to  the  heights  of  God, 
and  wrapt  Isaiah  in  the  flames  of  inspiration,  and 
kindled  in  David  the  fires  which  melted  in  him 
the  truth  that  has  run  molten  and  singing  down 
the  centuries.  The  ideal  which  we  should  all 
seek  to  attain  is  that  which  is  expressed  in  the 
twin-name  oi  Hebrew-Christian.  Such  was  J  AMES. 
A  GREAT  man's  MODESTY. 
See  the  modesty  of  this  great  man.  He  had 
received  the  first  thrill  of  his  life  in  the  womb 
which  had  held  Him  whom  the  world  was  to 
receive  as  the  Son  of  God,  He  had  played  with 
the  holy  child  Jesus  in  the  house  of  Joseph  and 
Mary,  and  down  in  the  Nazareth  streets  close  by 
the  Fount  of  the  Virgin.  He  had  grown  up 
under  the  spell  of  the  matchless  character  of  the 
wonderful  brother  whose  life  was  made  sublime 
and  simple  by  the  great  work  which  He  had  to 
do.  With  Him  James  had  climbed  the  heights 
above  Nazareth,  and  descended  the  slopes  into 
the  plain  below,  and  in  long,  deep,  earnest  talks 
had  received  into  himself,  under  the  eye  of  their 
pure  and  exalted  mother,  a  formative  element 
which  told  powerfully  upon  his  own  character. 
He  had  watched  this  elder  brother's  growth  in 
stature  and  wisdom  and  grace,  until  the  time  He 
entered  upon  a  ministry  begun  by  the  miracle  at 
Cana  of  Galilee,   at  which  James  probably  was 


TJie  Gospel  of  Conivwn  Sense.  31 

present.  He  had  endured  all  the  intellectual 
perplexity  which  arose  from  knowing  that  Jesus 
was  his  brother  just  as  the  other  sons  of  Mary 
were,  so  far  as  he  could  perceive,  and  yet  had 
always  had  some  exaltation,  some  spiritual  ele- 
ment which  made  Him  so  divinely  far  apart  while 
He  was  so  humanly  near.  jAMES  was  probably 
married,  and  was  not  living  with  the  Mother- 
Mary  when  Jesus  was  crucified.  He  had  never 
given  in  his  allegiance  to  Jesus  as  the  Messiah, 
as  the  Lord  of  Humanity,  as  the  Savior  of  the 
world  until  that  crucified  Brother  had  been 
buried,  had  raised  Himself  from  the  dead,  had 
shown  Himself  to  Peter,  then  to  the  Twelve  and 
then  to  five  hundred  disciples,  and  then  to  this 
brother,  who  had  not  believed  on  Him.  This 
overwhelming  interview  had  thoroughly  con- 
verted James,  and  prepared  him  to  be  the  pastor 
of  the  first  Christian  church  in  Jerusalem  and  the 
helper  of  all  Christian  people  in  all  time  to  come. 
So  he  humbly  calls  himself,  "  the  bond-servant 
of  God  and  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

The  title  "bond-servant"  or  "slave"  dis- 
tinguishes the  bearer  from  that  of  "  hireling." 
It  meant  one  who  was  "  bound,"  not  a  mere 
wage-taker,  but  bound  for  life,  so  bound  that  his 
interests  and  his  master's  had  become  inseparably 
united,  so  that  he  could  not  be  faithless  to  his  mas- 
ter without  injury  to  himself,  and  that  the  master's 
interest  lay  in  taking  care  of  the  bond-servant. 


32  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

"  Now,  from  the  devotedness  of  such  service,"  says 
Bishop  Bloomfield  (on  Romans  i  :  i),  "it  was 
applied  to  the  service  of  God,  and  the  term 
servant  of  God  was  appHed  first  to  Moses  and 
Joshua,  afterwards  to  the  Apostles  and  the  minis- 
ters of  the  Gospel  in  general,  as  in  2  Tim.  2  :  24, 
in  both  which  last  uses,  it  denotes  one  devoted  to 
the  spiritual  service  of  Christ  in  His  Gospel;  and, 
therefore,  indicates  both  the  station  and  the  de- 
votedness of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  applied." 
Yet  if  James  did  have  any  thought  of  "station," 
he  certainly  suggests  it  modestly.  He  makes  no 
great  claim  of  authority  as  coming  from  his 
station.  He  relies  more  upon  the  influence  com- 
ing from  his  character.  He  claims  nothing  as 
"the  brother  of  the  Lord,"  although  he  was 
commonly  known  in  Christian  circles  by  that 
appellation. 

THE   GREETING. 

The  "  greeting"  is  to  be  noticed.  It  comes  at 
the  beginning  of  the  epistle  as  it  does  in  the  cir- 
cular letter  which  James  sent  to  the  churches  at 
the  close  of  the  Council  at  Jerusalem,  and  it  is  in 
the  same  abbreviated  form  (Acts  1 5  :  23).  Strictly 
translated  the  word  means  "to  be  happy."  "I 
tell  (you)  to  be  kappy  "  would  be  the  full  phrase. 

It  occurs  negatively  in  2  John  10  :  "  If  any  one 
Cometh  unto  you  and  bringeth  not  this  teaching, 
receive  him  not  into  your  house,  and  do  not  tell 
him  to  be  happy." 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  33 

The  address  is  made  to  his  Hebrew-Christian 
brethren  of  every  part  of  the  nationality,  and  so 
he  calls  them  the  "twelve  tribes."  The  frequent 
scatterings  of  the  Jews  seem  to  have  wrought  an 
obliteration  of  the  tribal  distinction,  so  that  now 
it  may  be  said  that  for  about  twenty  centuries 
they  have  been  without  that  distinction  and  with- 
out king  or  government,  without  temple  and 
priest.  But  when  the  ten  tribes  were  carried 
away  some  individuals  had  remained  and  some  had 
returned.  When  Josiah  undertook  to  purge  Judah 
and  Jerusalem,  B.C.  628,  they  were  still  in  the 
land,  and  recognized  by  their  tribal  relations,  as 
it  appears  that  the  good  young  king  carried  his 
reformation  to  "  the  cities  of  Manasseh,  and 
Ephraim,  and  Simeon,  even  unto  Naphtali  "  (2 
Chron.  34  :  1-6).  In  the  ninth  verse  of  the  same 
chapter,  we  learn  that  contributions  were  made 
to  the  temple-fund  by  Manasseh,  Ephraim  and 
"all  the  remnant  of  Israel."  In  the  Book  of 
Ezra  (6:21)  mention  is  made  of  the  children  of 
Israel  who  had  come  again  out  of  their  captivity, 
and  that  at  the  dedication  of  the  House  of  God 
there  were  offered  "for  a  sin-offering  for  all 
Israel^  twelve  he-goats,  according  to  the  number 
of  the  tribes  of  Israel."  That  these  persons  for 
themselves  took  an  interested  part  in  the  joyful 
solemnities  appears  from  the  statement  (Ezra  8  : 
35)  that  "the  children  of  those  that  had  been 
carried  away,  which  were  come  out  of  the  captiv- 


34  The  Gospel  of  C  mnion  Sense. 

ity,  offered  burnt  offerings  to  the  God  of  Israel, 
twelve  bullocks  for  all  Israel,"  etc.  This  was  B.C. 
457.  But  everywhere  there  were  descendants  of 
the  original  families  of  all  the  tribes,  and  Paul 
sympathized  with  the  religious  patriotism  of 
James,  as  appears  in  the  phrase  occurring  in  his 
plea  for  himself  before  Agrippa,  in  which  he  speaks 
of"  our  twelve  tribes,  instantly  serving  God  day 
and  night  "  (Acts  26  :  7). 

THE    TRIALS   OF   LIFE  :    A   WRONG   THEORY. 

The  writer  lost  no  time  with  ceremonious  pre- 
liminaries. The  object  for  which  he  had  under- 
taken the  epistle  was  always  before  him.  He 
knew  that  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed  were 
having  a  doubly  hard  life ;  hard  because  they 
were  Jews,  and  hard  because  they  were  Chris- 
tians. 

Life  is  not  always  easy  to  any,  of  whatever 
condition  or  fortune.  And  men  increase  the 
painfulness  of  living  by  undertaking  life  on  a 
wrong  theory  :  namely,  the  conception  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  making  life  free  from  trouble.  They 
dream  of  this  ;  they  plan  for  this  ;  they  toil  for 
this  ;  they  are  all  disappointed.  It  is  impracticable. 
After  millions  of  failures  in  all  the  past,  and  the 
sight  of  failure  in  all  lives  visible  to  us,  each  man 
renews  the  efforts  to  accomplish  the  impossible. 
He  might  just  as  well  seek  to  live  without  eat- 
ing or  without  breathing.  In  the  present  condi- 
tion of  human  society,  no  man  is  born  to  be  free 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  35 

from  trouble.  On  the  contrary,  all  human  beings 
are  born  to  trouble  as  the  birds  fly  upward.  (This 
seems  to  be  the  meaning  of  Job  5,  7.) 

The  metaphor  of  the  birds  is  instructive.  It  is 
of  a  bird's  nature  to  fly.  The  build  of  its  body, 
with  its  adjusted  apparatus,  suggests  flying.  The 
law  of  heredity  has  transmitted  to  each  bird  the 
natural  impulsion  to  fly.  Resting  is  the  inter- 
ruption of  a  bird's  flying,  not  the  contrary.  Fly- 
ing is  his  rule  ;  walking  or  resting,  his  exception. 
The  fish  was  made  to  swim,  as  the  bird  was  made 
to  fly,  and  man  was  "  born  to  trouble."  There 
are  intervals.  In  the  life  of  each  of  us,  as  we 
have  passed  out  of  a  great  trouble,  it  has  seemed 
as  if  no  more  would  come.  But  another  has 
come  ;  and  our  lives  are  spent  in  being  in  some 
trouble,  or  in  passing  from  one  trouble  to  an- 
other. 

If  there  be  any  exception  to  that  rule — if 
there  be  any  man  or  woman  on  the  planet  past 
thirty,  who  has  had  no  troubles,  I  have  never  seen 
that  person  or  heard  that  person's  name.  Have 
you  .'' 

Why,  then,  should  we  increase  the  difficulties 
of  human  life  by  adding  to  its  natural  limitations 
the  attempt  to  reach  the  unattainable }  They 
live  the  less  difficult  lives  who  early  adjust  them- 
selves to  the  natural  fact  that  trouble  is  to  be 
the  normal  condition  of  life.  They  prepare 
thernselves  for   it.     They  fortify  themselves  by 


36  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

philosophy  and  religion  to  endure  the  inevitable. 
Then  every  hour  free  from  trouble  is  so  much 
clear  gain.  But  to  him  who  adopts  the  other 
theory — and  who  does  not  ? — every  trouble  is  so 
much  clear  loss.  The  man  in  trouble,  the  fish  in 
water,  the  bird  in  air :  that  is  the  law ;  why  not 
accept  it  ? 

That  fact  need  not  discourage  us.  It  does  not 
take  from  our  dignity,  nor  from  our  growth,  nor 
from  our  final  happiness.  The  painter  cannot 
have  his  picture  glowing  on  the  canvas  by 
merely  designing  it,  nor  the  sculptor  transmute 
his  ideal  into  marble  by  a  wish.  The  one  must 
take  all  the  trouble  of  drawing  and  coloring,  and 
the  other  that  of  chiselling  and  polishing.  It  is 
no  necessary  discouragement  to  a  boy  that  he 
must  be  under  tutors,  and  must  go  through  the 
trouble  and  discipline  of  school  days,  even  if  he 
be  a  prince.  //  is  the  laiu.  That  answers  all.  It 
need  scarcely  be  added  th^t  for  any  success  we 
must  conform  to  the  law.  Our  whole  human  ex- 
perience has  taught  that  lesson.  I  am  not  re- 
sponsible for  the  law.  I  did  not  make  it.  I  can- 
not alter  it  ;  most  certainly  I  would  not  abrogate 
it,  unless  I  be  a  born  and  unchangeable  fool. 
There  are  only  two  courses  left.  I  can  obey  the 
law,  and  thus  adjust  myself  to  my  physical  and 
spiritual  environment,  or  I  can  resist  the  law, 
and  thus  do  for  myself  what  the  earthen  pitcher 
would  do  for  itself  if  it  dashed  itself  against  the 
stone  curb  of  the  well. 


The  Gospel  of  Conunon  Sense.  37 

This  sure  view  of  life  is  not  pessimistic.  It 
detracts  nothing  from  the  theory  of  the  harmony 
of  the  universe,  any  more  than  the  shades  of 
color  or  the  parts  of  music  detract,  the  former 
from  the  harmony  of  the  picture,  or  the  latter 
from  the  harmony  of  the  tune.  It  is  a  very  un- 
true estimate  of  life  to  regard  it  as  successful  in 
proportion  to  the  absence  of  trouble. 

SPECIAL  SOURCES  OF  TROUBLE. 

The  men  to  whom  James  wrote  this  epistle 
had  several  sources  of  trouble.  They  were  exiled 
from  their  birth-place,  or  the  birth-place  of  their 
fathers  ;  they  were  exiled  from  their  church- 
home  ;  their  Christian  profession  naturally  ex- 
cluded them  from  the  sympathies  of  their  former 
co-religionists  ;  their  own  natural  attachment  to 
their  old  forms  of  worship  and  methods  of  ex- 
pressing their  earnest  beliefs  distinguished  them 
so  from  their  new  Gentile  fellow-Christians  that 
they  did  not  find  perfect  sympathy  there;  and, 
as  Jews,  they  were  exposed  to  all  the  depressions 
which  came  to  them  from  their  Roman  conquer- 
ors on  account  of  their  nationality,  and  as  Chris- 
tians, to  all  the  suppressions  attempted  by  the 
same  civil  power  on  account  of  their  religion. 
These  they  had  in  addition  to  the  troubles  which 
naturally  fell  to  them  as  men. 

The  good  James  saw  all  this.  There  was  noth. 
ing  vague  and  dreamy  in  him.  He  took  direct 
and  clear  views  of  life.     He  knew  how  their  con- 


38  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

dition  of  suffering  would  have  a  tendency  to  de- 
press his  scattered  brethren.  He  would  strength- 
en that  he  might  cheer  them.  He  knew  that 
any  other  method  of  dealing  would  be  of  no  per- 
manent value  to  them.  The  very  opening  of  his 
address  is  a  vigorous  tonic  ;  and  his  whole  epis- 
tle, written  in  the  most  beautiful  Greek  found  in 
the  New  Testament,  is  of  an  epigrammatic  style 
of  thought  uttered  in  sparkling  language. 

What  was  good  for  them  must  be  good  for  us, 
so  far  as  it  goes  to  form  character  by  stimulating 
our  ethical  qualities.  In  these  pages  it  is  pro- 
posed to  give  a  study  to  this  epistle,  not  a  critical 
examination,  not  a  specially  philosophical  analy- 
sis, but  a  plain,  common-sense  inquiry  into  the 
meaning  of  the  teaching  of  the  most  practical 
of  all  the  early  propagators  of  the  teaching  of 
Jesus. 

JOY   IN   TRIALS. 

Immediately  after  his  salutation,  the  writer 
breaks  upon  his  readers  almost  as  with  a  shout, 
"J/)/  brethren,  count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers 
temptations''  He  puts  himself  into  sympathetic 
communication  with  them  at  once.  ''My  breth- 
ren^' he  calls  them  ;  as  though  he  would  remind 
them  that  what  he  was  about  to  say  was  not  a 
lecture  delivered  by  a  stranger,  by  a  cold  profes- 
sor of  ethical  science,  but  a  heart-talk  by  a  brother 
in  tribulation  who,  in  his  own  experience,  had 
acquired  ample  knowledge  of  the  kind  of  sorrow 
which  often  burdened  their  hearts. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  39 

He  strikes  a  high  key  in  the  beginning.  "All 
joy!  "  Why,  most  of  them  seemed  to  have  almost 
no  joy.  "Divers  trials"  they  had:  that  was  a 
condensed  statement  of  their  normal  circum- 
stances. Now  he  prefers  to  show  them  that 
those  divers  trials,  coming  upon  them  from  differ- 
ent quarters,  attacking  them  on  different  sides, 
could   rationally   be   counted    by  them    as    "  all 

joy." 

WHAT   IS   TEMPTATION  ? 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  "  temptations  "  as  the 
word  is  rendered  in  the  Common  Version  does 
not  mean  seduction  to  evil.  In  the  13th  verse  of 
the  first  chapter,  James  writes  :  "  Let  no  man 
say  when  he  is  tempted,  'I  a?n  tempted  of  God;' 
for  God  cannot  be  tempted  of  evil,  neither  temp- 
teth  He  any  man."  And  James  knew  that  his 
brother  Jesus  had  taught  a  prayer  to  His  dis- 
ciples, a  prayer  oftener  repeated  perhaps  than  any 
other  form  of  address  to  God  in  any  language,  a 
prayer  in  which  we  are  to  ask  the  Father  in 
heaven  to  "  lead  us  not  into  temptation,"  that  is, 
providentially  to  bring  to  bear  upon  us  such  in- 
fluences as  shall  lead  us  away  from  seduction  to 
evil. 

"When  ye  fall  into  divers  trials  !"  The  word 
here  must  mean  just  what  it  means  in  the  twelfth 
verse  of  this  chapter:  "Blessed  is  the  man  that 
endureth  temptation,  for  when  he  is  tried,  he  shall 
receive  the  crown  of  life." 


40  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Very  carefully  does  the  writer,  by  his  choice  of 
language,  guard  against  any  mistake.  He  ex- 
horts no  man,  Jew  or  Gentile,  Christian  or  in- 
fidel or  reprobate,  to  rejoice  in  trouble  brought 
upon  himself  by  his  sins  or  his  imprudences.  In 
the  very  constitution  of  things,  the  man  that  has 
done  wrong  must  suffer  ;  when  the  punishment 
comes  he  has  little  ground  for  rejoicing,  but  much 
for  abasement  and  sorrow;  and  well  is  it  for  that 
man  if  his  sorrow  worketh  in  him  repentance.  So 
Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians  (2  Cor.  7  :  9):  "  Now 
I  rejoice  not  that  ye  were  made  sorry,  but  that  ye 
were  made  sorry  unto  repentance." 

In  this  world  trouble  will  come  to  all.  The 
very  processes  of  nature  by  which  we  and  our 
children  are  brought  into  the  world  and  carried 
out  of  the  world,  the  necessary  results  of  our  affec- 
tions, which  give  such  charm  and  glow  to  life,  all 
bring  us  unavoidable  trouble.  Probably  the  most 
of  our  troubles,  and  greatest,  come  through  our 
affections.  Adam  and  Eve  loved  Cain  and  Abel. 
When  one  of  the  brothers  slew  the  other,  the 
bereaved  parents  had  double  trouble.  They  had 
lost  a  child.  In  proportion  to  the  goodness  of 
that  son,  his  obedience  and  filial  love,  was  the 
poignancy  of  the  anguish  of  bereavement.  That 
was  a  great  trouble.  It  was  the  first  death  of 
a  human  being.  But  there  was  a  greater  trouble. 
The  loss  of  the  slain  lay  not  so  heavy  on  the 
hearts   of  the   first  parents   as  the  guilt  of  the 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  41 

slayer.  On  one  side  was  a  loss,  on  the  other  a 
crime.  They  had  a  son  who  was  dead  and  an- 
other who  was  a  murderer. 

Who  can  estimate  the  trouble  brought  upon 
husbands  by  the  wrong-doing  of  their  wives,  upon 
wives  by  their  husbands,  upon  parents  by  their 
children,  and  upon  children  by  their  parents  .?  If 
all  the  sorrow  which  comes  upon  men  by  the 
wrong-doing  of  others  could  instantly  be  removed 
from  the  world,  how  immensely  the  trouble  of 
the  race  would  be  mitigated.  The  world  would 
seem  to  resemble  heaven.  Indeed,  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  represent  the  escape  from  the  world  as 
an  entrance  upon  the  state  where  "the  wicked 
cease  from  troubling." 

When  these  troubles  are  upon  men  they  may 
be  made  seductions  to  evil  or  trials  of  character. 
The  work  of  the  evil  spirit  is  to  render  them 
temptations  in  the  bad  sense.  Our  Heavenly 
Father  uses  them  as  trials.  The  men  who  have 
no  faith  in  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  and 
Father  of  Jesus  Christ,  have  no  right  to  rejoice 
either  when  they  bring  temptations  upon  them- 
selves by  their  vices  or  fall  into  temptations  in 
the  ordinary  process  of  affairs.  There  is  a  "  sorrow 
of  the  world  "  which  "  worketh  death  "  (2  Cor. 
7  :  10).  But  Abraham  and  James,  and  all  others 
who  are  Israelites,  and  true  Christians,  and 
most  especially  those  who,  like  the  persons  to 
whom  this  epistle  was  addressed,  were  Christian 


42  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Israelites,  have  great  reason  to  count  it  "  all 
joy"  when  they  "fall  into  divers"  troubles,  which 
the  Heavenly  Father  makes  "divers  [or  versi- 
colored] trials  "  and  so  manifold  blessings.  So 
true  is  it  that  while  the  grace  of  God,  like  a  celes- 
tial alchemy,  extracts  only  good  from  evil,  the 
malignity  of  Satan,  like  an  infernal  magic,  draws 
evil  out  of  good. 

GROUNDS   OF   REJOICING. 

Why  should  Christians  rejoice  when  they  "fall 
into  divers  temptations"  ? 

god's  PROVIDENCE. 

Because  it  comes  in  the  providence  of  God,  for 
which  the  servants  of  God  have  no  responsibility. 
They  have  not  ordered  the  affairs  of  the  universe, 
and  they  have  not  violated  that  order.  There  is 
no  fault  on  either  side.  There  could  not  be  a 
world  so  good  as  this,  and  be  a  world  in  which 
there  were  no  trouble.  That  has  been  settled 
by  the  believer  once  for  all.  He  cannot  join  the 
cry  of  the  rebellious  heart  when  it  asks,  in  pas- 
sionate anger,  "  Why  does  God  take  my  beloved 
to  the  grave  .''  Why  does  God  allow  this 
trouble  to  come  upon  me  .'' "  He  does  not  ask 
for  a  constant  interference  upon  the  part  of  God, 
with  the  operations  which  He  has  set  at  work  in 
a  universe  conceived  in  infinite  love,  and  pro- 
duced in  infinite  wisdom,  and  sustained  by  the 
incessant  exercise  of  infinite  power.  There  has 
been  no  caprice  in  the  Immortal  Father,  and  no 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  43 

sin  in  the  mortal  child.  Walking  on  the  path  of 
duty,  the  Father's  child  has  fallen  into  trouble. 
He  counts  it  all  joy  that  he  did  not  make  the 
trouble,  and  that  his  Father  knew  that  it  found 
him  on  the  path  of  duty.  The  servant  of  our 
Lord  Jesus,  the  child  of  Abraham,  should  take  as 
a  governing  principle  of  his  life,  the  sentiment 
that  a  grain  of  guilt  is  heavier  than  ten  tons  of 
trouble. 

A  devout  and  intelligent  soul  knows  that  God 
his  Father  is  not  an  unconcerned  observer  of  the 
movements  of  the  universe.  Having  fashioned 
that  orderly  universe,  He  governs  it  on  certain 
principles ;  but  He  has  never  surrendered  the 
government  of  that  universe,  or  turned  it  loose, 
to  go  of  itself.  While  certain  effects  come  from 
certain  causes,  even  feeble  men  can  control  those 
effects, and  combine  them  and  use  them  as  causes 
for  other  effects.  Much  more  can  God.  His 
general  providence  is  seen  in  the  operation  of  the 
laws  He  has  set  for  the  government  of  things. 
A  part  of  those  laws  may  be  scientifically  ascer- 
tained by  His  children  who  have  "pleasure  in 
His  works."  But  who  knows  them  all .-'  If  there 
be  some  laws  of  matter  and  of  mind  which  it  is 
impossible  for  human  beings  to  discover,  will  not 
God  reveal  those  also  .-'  Will  He  not,  in  all  con- 
ditions and  circumstances,  use  what  He  Himself 
has  produced,  so  as  to  carry  forward  in  the  best 
way  the  highest  education  of  His  child .?     The 


44  The  Gospel  of  Cuvniion  Sense. 

true  son  and  servant  of  the  Lord  believes  that 
his  Heavenly  Father  adapts  His  special  providence 
to  the  particular  case  of  each  of  His  children. 
He  may  not  interfere  to  stop  the  operation  of 
the  laws  He  has  wisely  ordained  ;  but  He  will 
bring  other  laws  to  operate  upon  the  results  so 
as  to  benefit  His  children.  He  may  not  keep  the 
fire  from  burning  a  heroic  saint  who  rushes  in  to 
pluck  a  sinner  from  the  flaming  house  ;  but  He 
will  bring  to  that  saint  from  his  torturing  wound 
and  ugly  scar  a  glory  princes  cannot  gain  from 
crowns. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  TRIAL. 
There  is  great  comfort  and  often  much  joy  in 
reflecting  upon  the  effect  of  all  the  discipline  of 
trouble  if  rightly  used.  It  is  the  development  of 
that  in  man  which  not  only  distinguishes  him 
from  the  lower  animals,  but  is  that  which  is  the 
loftiest  and  most  ennobling  of  human  capabilities, 
namely  faith.  To  be  able  to  perceive,  to  com- 
pare, to  judge,  to  reason,  to  remember,  to  fancy, 
to  imagine,  these  are  wonderful  intellectual  en- 
dowments. But  a  much  greater  faculty  than  any 
one  of  them  and  than  they  all,  is  that  faculty 
which  enables  us  to  receive  and  to  cling  to  the 
truth  ;  and  that  is  faith.  What  were  all  others 
without  this  .''  Of  what  use  would  my  senses  be  if 
I  could  not  have  faith  in  the  correctness  of  their 
report }  Of  what  use  my  logical  understanding 
if  I  could  have  no  faith  in  conclusions  produced 


TJie  Gospel  of  Conimo7t  Sense.  45 

by  its  processes  ?  Without  faith  it  is  plainly  im- 
possible to  have  any  physical  science  or  any 
science  of  the  mind.  Without  faith  it  is  impos- 
sible to  have  any  system  or  any  practical  life. 
No  wonder  then  that  it  has  been  said  that  with- 
out faith  "  it  is  impossible  to  please  God,"  seeing 
that  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to  please  either 
our  fellow-men  or  ourselves. 

Then,  what  a  man  most  needs  is  the  certainty 
that  his  faith  is  genuine.  This  can  be  ascertained 
only  by  some  such  process  as  that  which  an  as- 
sayer  employs  when  he  strives  to  discover  the 
ingredients  of  any  substance.  The  testing  of 
gold  ore,  for  instance,  is  a  process  involving 
several  mixtures,  several  vessels,  and  several  uses 
of  great  heat.  It  is  important  to  know  what  pro- 
portion of  gold  there  is  in  the  ore.  There  may 
be  other  things  in  combination  ;  but  the  assayer 
is  intent  on  finding  how  much  of  the  ore  is  gold. 
The  ore  is  more  valuable  as  there  is  more  gold 
in  it.  There  may  be  silver,  there  may  be  lead, 
there  may  be  copper,  and  these  are  useful  metals; 
but  it  is  the  gold  which  gives  the  chief  value  to 
the  ore.  So  it  is  faith  which  gives  chief  value  to 
any  man.  Great  imagination  may  make  a  great 
poet  ;  great  logical  powers,  a  great  philosopher; 
great  faculty  for  observation,  a  great  scientist;  but 
nothing  makes  a  great  man  but  great  faith. 

Now  afflictions  are  trials  of  one's  faith,  jAMES 
uses  the  word  which  signifies  a  "  test,"  and  a  test 


46  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

applied  in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  proof  of  the 
correctness  of  the  result.  The  argument  of  the 
author  is  :  "  Since  ye  know — wJiicJi  ive  take  for 
granted — that  afflictions  are  trials,  [tests]  of  faith, 
and  since  yc  also  knoiv  that  it  is  this  testing  of  your 
faith  zuhich produces  endurance''  (v.  3).  The  test 
takes  other  things  away  and  leaves  the  faith  ;  not 
only  that,  but  it  leaves  also  the  proof  that  it  is 
genuine  faith. 

"perfect"  and  "entire." 

This  endurance,  which  the  writer  seems  to  con- 
sider the  finally  desirable  thing,  may  have  two 
meanings  :  it  may  signify  the  being  able  to  bear 
whatever  is  laid  on  us  by  our  Lord,  and  which 
we  call  patience,  or  it  may  s'xgnUy  permanence  of 
character.  The  latter  seems  the  fixed  meaning. 
Before  the  blast  the  dead  leaves  are  driven,  or  the 
waves  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean  are  tossed,  but 
the  tree  has  endurance  and  remains  ;  the  ocean 
has  endurance  and  remains.  It  is  \\\\s  per  mane  Jice 
of  character  which  is  desirable  above  all  things. 
The  earlier  trials  are  the  first  weights  imposed 
upon  character.  They  tend  to  give  compactness. 
There  is  a  line  of  density  below  which  no  sub- 
stance can  be  pressed.  Every  additional  pound 
of  weight  causes  that  which  is  pressed  to  approach 
that  compactness  which  no  additional  burden 
can  increase. 

This   completed  compactness  the  writer  calls 
the  "perfect  work"  of  endurance.     The  sooner  a 


TJic  Gospel  of  Cojiiinon  Sense.  47 

man  reaches  this  effect  of  trouble,  the  sooner  is 
he  at  the  point  where  no  trouble  can  ever  work 
him  any  harm.      He  is  "  perfect  and  entire." 

The  words  "  perfect  "  and  "  entire  "  are  not  sy- 
nonymous. There  is  a  difference  quite  worth  no- 
ticing :  the  first  being  properly  applied  to  what 
has  reached  its  end — that  which  has  reached 
its  complete  development — in  the  case  of  a 
tree,  to  that  which  is  full  grown  ;  the  second, 
to  that  which  has  all  that  belongs  to  it — in  the 
case  of  an  heir,  to  one  who  has  obtained  the  last 
item  of  the  estate  to  which  he  is  entitled. 
Through  this  whole  letter  we  are  to  recollect  that 
it  was  first  addressed  to  Hebrew-Christians. 

The  writer  of  this  epistle  did  not  understand 
Judaism  and  Christianity  as  two  religions.  He 
had  come  to  believe  that  Judaism  was  not  per- 
fected until  it  developed  into  Christianity  ;  that 
was  the  intention  of  Judaism,  which  had  been  a 
tree  in  process  of  development,  and  not  complete 
until  it  bore  the  flowers  and  fruits  of  Christianity. 
The  Israelite  who  had  developed  into  a  Christian 
was  "  perfect."  While  he  remained  only  a  Jew, 
he  was  heir  to  a  vast  estate,  upon  a  large  and 
rich  portion  of  which  he  had  not  entered  until  he 
became  a  Christian  ;  then  he  was  "entire." 

To  us  perhaps  the  most  practical  distinction  in 
the  meaning  of  the  words  may  point  to  a  differ- 
ence in  faith  and  practice,  in  the  inner  spiritual 
life  and  outer  active  life.     The  result  of  all  trials 


48  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

should   be   to  increase  that   perfect   faith    which 
works  by  love  and  makes  the  life  entire. 

When  the  writer  adds  "lacking  nothing,"  "  z'« 
nothing  left  behind,'"  pointing  by  the  word  he 
employs  to  a  race,  perhaps  he  would  intimate  to 
us,  that  there  might  be  danger  of  misinterpreting 
what  he  had  written  so  as  to  signify  that  where  a 
Hebrew  had  developed  into  a  Christian  there  was 
nothing  more  to  do.  He  knew  that  however  far 
the  racers  had  run,  the  race  was  not  won  while 
there  remained  any  space  uncovered.  The  disci- 
pline should  prepare  us  to  make  further  progress. 
The  Christian  individual  and  the  Christian  Church 
must  each  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  our  Lord  and  Savior.  The  result  of  all  past 
discipline  from  pain,  is  to  prepare  us  to  trust 
more,  to  learn  more,  to  love  more.  To  stop  run- 
ing  is  to  lose  the  race  ;  to  stop  growing  is  to 
begin  to  decay. 

THE   GIVING   GOD. 

The  writer  seems  to  hear  some  of  his  readers 
say  :  "But  it  requires  much  wisdom  to  live  thus 
in  the  midst  of  trials."  Very  true  !  But  the 
supply  is  at  hand.  "Ask  of  God."  ^'  If  any  of 
yon  come  short  of  zvisdom  let  him  ask  of  the  giving 
God.''  What  an  encouraging  epithet,  "  the  giving 
God," — the  God  who  is  accustomed  to  give, 
who  is  known  amongst  men  and  angels  as  THE 
GIVER.  And  that  there  may  be  the  utmost  en- 
couragement,   James  gives  three   characteristics 


The  Gospel  of  Coniinoii  Sense.  49 

of  His  giving:  (i)  It  is  universal,  (2)  it  is  abun- 
dant,* and  (3)  it  is  unselfish.  How  exceedingly- 
encouraging  this  is. 

One  may  say,  "  I  am  so  insignificant;"  an- 
other, "I  am  so  sinful;"  another,  "I  have  so 
little  faith  ;  "  another,  "  I  am  so  hard." 

But  you  are  a  human  being,  and  He  gives  to  all. 

"But  I  am  so  fearfully  lacking,  my  need  of 
wisdom  is  so  great.  If  I  had  any  sense  what- 
ever, I  might  apply  to  Him."  But,  He  "  giveth 
liberally."  He  longs  to  have  great  things  asked 
of  Him.  Go  to  little  men  for  little  things.  It  i*- 
as  easy  for  a  great  man  to  do  a  great  thing,  as 
for  a  small  man  to  do  a  small  thing.  God,  the 
Father,  King  of  the  world,  may  be  asked  for 
the  largest  gifts,  since  no  giving  can  possibly 
render  Him  poorer.  John  Newton  has  this 
thought  in  one  of  his  hymns  : 

f^  "  Thou  art  coming  to  a  King, 
Large  petitions  with  thee  bring  : 
For  His  grace  and  power  are  such 
None  can  ever  ask  too  much." 

A  humane  monarch  once  said,  "  The  greatest 
advantage  of  being  a  king  is,  that  the  king  has 
the  power  to  make  so  many  happy."  The  ad- 
vantage which  God  has  over  all  His  children — ~ 
even  earthly  monarchs — is  that  He  has  more 
power  to  make  more  people  happy. 


'  Acts  17  :  25,  "  He  giveth  to  all  life  and  breath  and  all 
things." 


50  The  Gospel  of  Coniinon  Sense. 

The  unselfishness  of  the  Divine  Giver  is  seen 
in  that  He  never  "  upbraids."  Human  givers  are 
so  interested  in  their  part  of  any  giving  transac- 
tion that  a  much-solicited  person  is  apt  to  do  or 
say  something  which  shall  remind  the  receiver  of 
his  obligation,  and  to  make  former  gifts  a  reason 
for  withholding  that  which  is  now  sought  ;  and, 
more  especially,  if  good  use  has  not  been  made  of 
former  benefactions,  to  upbraid  the  ungrateful  or 
thriftless  receiver.  Even  human  parents  some- 
times do  this.  It  requires  the  greatest  nobility 
to  rise  above  such  inclinations.  Our  Father  never 
upbraids.  He  never  points  to  the  misuse  we  have 
made  of  any  former  gifts.  He  never  tires  of  giv- 
ing, and  so  He  never  says  to  a  penitent  at  His 
feet  :  "  What,  you  here  again  !  Can  you  never 
be  satisfied  .-*  Where  is  the  blessing  I  gave  you 
last  week  }  There  seems  to  be  no  hour  of  the 
day  or  night  in  which  you  are  not  soliciting 
something."  No  !  He  never  says  such  things. 
He  is  so  delighted  to  have  us  ask  that  He  would 
have  us  more  ashamed  of  not  coming  to  Him  for 
needed  wisdom  than  for  any  other  fault  or  sin. 
WHAT  LS  WISDOM  .? 

The  wisdom  we  are  to  seek  may  be  that  wis- 
dom which  will  enable  us  to  turn  every  trouble 
to  a  good  account.  He  is  a  great  merchant  who 
can  make  a  great  commercial  disaster  the  foun- 
dation of  a  fortune.  He  is  a  great  general  who 
can  wrench  victory  from  defeat.     He  is  a  wise 


The  Gospel  of  Coini/ion  Sense.  51 

man  who  grows  stronger  in  the  midst  of  troubles 
which  break  weaker  men. 

Or,  it  may  be  that  exalted  nobility  of  spirit 
which  James  describes  (3  :  17)  as  produced  by  the 
wisdom  which  cometh  down  from  above. 

Or,  it  may  be  that  same  religiousness  which  is 
named  in  Holy  Scripture  as  "  the  fear  of  the 
Lord,"  which  fear  the  Psalmist  (in  :  10)  calls 
"the  beginning  of  wisdom,"  and  (112  :  i)  de- 
scribes as  great  delight  in  the  commandments  of 
the  Lord.  Still  earlier,  in  the  Book  of  Job  (18  : 
28)  it  had  been  written  :  "  Behold,  the  fear  of  the 
Lord,  that  is  wisdom  ;  and  to  depart  from  evil  is 
understanding." 

EVERY   TRUE   PRAYER   ANSWERED. 

How  positive  is  the  assurance  of  an  answer  to 
this  prayer  for  wisdom  !  You  may  pray  for  a 
change  of  circumstances,  for  more  land  or  money, 
or  for  success  in  some  undertaking,  or  for  deliv- 
erance from  some  trouble  ;  and  the  Father  may 
see  that  it  is  better  to  leave  you  just  as  you  are, 
and  answer  your  prayer  in  some  other  way.  In 
some  way  for  good  every  true  prayer  is  answered. 
There  could  not  possibly  be  an  unanswered 
prayer  without  something  greater  than  a  miracle 
— without  a  revolution  of  the  whole  system  of 
the  universe.  Until  attraction  repels,  and  heat 
makes  cool,  and  effects  produce  their  own  causes, 
there  cannot  be  an  unanswered  prayer,  because 
God  has  ordained  the  connection   between   the 


52  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

real  prayer,  intellectually  meant  and  heartily  felt 
prayer,  with  the  production  of  some  spiritual 
good.  The  law  of  gravity  is  not  more  sure  in  its 
existence,  or  more  unerring  in  its  action,  than 
the  law  of  spiritual  prayer.  But,  as  in  physical, 
so  in  spiritual  operations,  the  result  does  not  al- 
ways come  in  the  anticipated  mode,  but  it  comes 
somehow.  The  law  of  equivalents  is  unfailing. 
But  there  is  one  prayer  which  we  know  the  Fa- 
ther will  answer.  There  is  no  "perchance  "  here. 
We  need  not  say,  "  If  it  please  Thee,"  as  we  do 
when  we  are  praying  for  the  recovery  of  some 
beloved  person  who  is  sick.  It  may  be  better 
that  the  sick  should  die.  It  was  expedient  that 
Jesus  should  depart.  So,  while  His  disciples 
prayed  and  hoped  that  He  might  stay,  He  went. 
But  their  prayers  for  His  remaining  were  an- 
swered with  a  blessing  greater  than  the  continu- 
ing of  His  bodily  presence  with  them  could  have 
been.  There  are  no  conditions  in  asking  God  for 
wisdom.  "  He  that  seeks"  it  ''shall  find."  The 
petitioner  may  present  his  prayer  as  a  claim,  and 
demand  the  answer  of  this  special  prayer  as  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  special  promise. 

All  the  more  may  he  do  so,  because  this  wis- 
dom is  something  no  man  can  have  by  inherit- 
ance, and  no  man  acquire  by  any  study  under  the 
best  teachers  and  amidst  the  best  circumstances, 
and  no  man  can  iinpart  to  his  fellow-man.  For 
this  wisdom  we  must  "  ask  of  God" 


The  Gospel  flf  Common  Sense.  53 

But  the  prayer  for  it  must  be  in  faith.  The  soul 
of  the  petitioner  must  be  in  the  attitude  of 
certain  expectanc}-.  The  heart  must  be  Hfted 
up  with  the  eyes.  This  can  be  done  with  perfect 
simplicity  if  the  prayer  be  for  that  which  God 
has  surely  promised.  The  petitioner  can  then  go 
from  his  house  knowing  that  it  has  been  done, 
just  as  certainly  as  he  can  know  in  any  other 
way  that  anything  else  has  been  done  ;  just  as 
the  telegraph  operator  knows  that  his  message 
has  gone,  after  he  has  touched  the  keys.  There 
is  no  question  further  ;  there  are  no  contingen- 
cies. When  he  does  not  know  what  God's  will 
is,  he  says,  "  If  it  be  Thy  will."  But  he  does  not 
say  that  when  God  has  stated  in  advance  what 
His  will  is. 

DOUBTS   NEUTRALIZE. 

Of  course  no  blessing  comes  if  the  man  doubts. 
God  could  not  give  in  such  a  case,  because  the 
man  could  not  receive.  When  the  Father  has 
promised  His  wisdom,  a  special  spiritual  gift,  how 
can  it  rule  me  if  I  close  all  the  avenues  of  my 
spirit  by  my  unbelief }  The  object  of  the  gift  is  to 
improve  the  relations  between  the  Father  and 
the  child,  but  manifestly  that  cannot  begin  to  be 
done  if  the  child  believes  thai  the  Father  is  a 
liar,  or  even  if  he  fail  to  have  the  most  perfect 
faith  in  the  honor  and  good  intentions  of  the 
Father.  He  must  not  doubt.  If  he  is  not  will- 
ing to  give  God  trust,  how  can  he  expect  God 
t)  give  him  wisdom  ? 


54  ^/^^'  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

For  a  doubting  man  is  like  a  sea-surface.  He 
is  superficial.  He  lies  open  to  all  disturbing  in- 
fluences, as  the  ocean  does  on  its  surface,  on 
which  every  wind  plays,  driving  it  forward  and 
piling  it  into  waves.  Such  is  what  James  calls  a 
double-souled  man.  There  are  few  greater  mis- 
fortunes than  to  be  thus  between  two  natures. 
Instability  destroys  the  value  of  all  that  is  good 
in  a  man.  "  Unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not 
excel,"  said  the  patriarch  Jacob  to  one  of  his  sons. 

A  two-souled  man  is  unsettled  ;  ''unstable  in 
all  ways!'  His  opinions  are  fluctuating  ;  and  so 
are  his  sentiments.  Sometimes  he  is  repenting 
of  his  sins,  and  sometimes  he  is  repenting  of  his 
repentance.  Sometimes  the  importance  of  the 
future  overwhelms  him,  and  sometimes  he  feels 
that  nothing  is  worth  thinking  of  but  the  present. 
Such  instability  of  sentiment  must  unsettle  the 
believer.  The  man  is  sometimes  as  serene  as 
a  May  morning,  and  sometimes  as  sweeping  as 
a  cyclone.  You  can  never  know  how  he  will 
receive  you,  or  how  he  will  behave  under  cer- 
tain circumstances.  His  instability  imparts  its 
changefulness  to  his  countenance  ;  while  he  is 
looking  one  way,  his  soul  has  gone  another. 
His  speech  is  ambiguous,  his  tones  of  voice 
wavering,  his  utterance  now  very  rapid  and  now 
very  slow.  Sometimes  he  answers  off-hand  and 
without  reflection,  and  then  he  requires  so  much 
time  to  consider,  that  the  opportunity  for  speech 


The  Gospel  of  Couunon  Sense.  55 

has    passed.     He  is  untrustworthy  in  every  de- 
partment  of  life.     That   man  ''can  not"  receive 
anything  of  the  Lord.     He  cannot  hold  his  hand 
long  enough  to  have  anything  placed  therein. 
SPECIFIC    FORMS   OF   TROUBLE. 

From  a  general  discourse  upon  the  variegated 
trials  to  which  his  brethren  were  exposed,  and 
the  design  and  joyful  consummation  of  those  trials, 
James  passes  to  specific  cases,  in  which  he  gives 
specific  exhortations  and  comforts. 

The  conditions  of  life  are  changeful.  The  poor 
may  become  rich,  and  the  rich  become  poor  ;  the 
lowly  may  be  raised  to  the  highest  station,  and 
the  loftiest  of  mortals  be  cast  to  the  ground.  If 
a  man  have  the  Christian  faith  he  may  rejoice  in 
either  position,  and  may  rejoice  in  passing  from 
the  one  to  the  other. 

And  so  James  says  to  his  scattered  parishion- 
ers and  also  to  us,  "  Let  the  brother  of  loio  degree 
rejoice  in  his  exaltation,  and  the  rich  brother  in  his 
hnmbling,  because  he  perishes  like  the  flower  of 
the  grass :  for  the  sun  rose  with  a  scurcJiing  wind 
and  zvithered  the  grass,  and  the  flower  fell  and  the 
beauty  of  its  appearance  perished ;  thus  also  the 
rich  man  in  his  ivays  shall  fade. ^''  (w.  9,  10,  11.) 
FROM    LOW   TO    HIGH. 

There  are  two  senses  in  which  the  first  clause 
may  be  taken,  one  of  which  seems  much  higher 
than  the  other.  Let  us  first  take  that  which  is 
lower,    namely,    a    poor    brother    passing    into 


56  TJie  Gospel  of  Comvton  Sense. 

wealth.  It  is  ahvays  to  be  remembered  that  he 
is  our  brother,  no  matter  how  little  of  this  world's 
goods  he  may  possess  or  control.  It  is  a  proper 
habit  of  thou^^ht  to  think  always  of  all  the  poor 
as  being  our  brothers.  It  is  easy  enough  to 
claim  kinship  with  the  rich,  but  sometimes  em- 
barrassing to  recognize  consanguinity  with  the 
poor.  But  it  is  always  noble  to  do  so,  even  if  the 
prospect  be  that  our  brother  shall  never  accu- 
mulate any  property.  If  it  were  not  noble,  even 
if  it  were  not  right,  it  would  be  prudent,  as  a 
man's  financial  condition  never  is  an  indication  of 
his  moral  character,  and  as  that  financial  condi- 
tion may  at  any  moment  be  suddenly  and  greatly 
changed.  Emerson  says,  "  Man  was  born  to  be 
rich,  or  inevitably  grows  rich  by  the  use  of  his 
faculties,  by  the  union  of  thought  with  nature. 
Property  is  an  intellectual  production.  The 
game  requires  coolness,  right  reasoning,  prompt- 
ness and  patience  in  the  players.  Cultivated 
labor  drives  out  brute  labor." 

Sometimes  a  great  accession  of  wealth  comes 
suddenly,  by  the  death  of  some  rich  kinsman,  or 
a  combination  of  circumstances  which  gives  to  a 
man's  investments  an  unexpected  increase  of 
value.  In  this  latter  case  he  has  wrought  better 
than  he  knew.  Let  any  man  who  has  faith  in 
God  rejoice  when  this  occurs.  Let  no  man  re- 
joice at  such  accession  of  riches  if  he  be  not  the 
Lord's  servant.      "  Rich  and  ungodly  —  a  double 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Se^tsc.  57 

hell-rope,"  exclaims  Hedinger.  But  the  good 
may  rejoice  because  it  has  come  to  him  in  the 
providence  of  God.  He  has  not  set  his  heart 
inordinately  upon  it.  It  has  come  in  the  proper 
use  of  his  faculties  and  opportunities. 

Let  him  rejoice.     Poverty  has  its  trials  as  well 
as  riches.     He  has  endured  the  former,  let  him 
rejoice  that  he  may  now  endure  the  latter.     He 
has  had  the  whole  of  the  good  effect  of  poverty, 
and  now  he  is  to  have  his  discipline  varied.     He 
has  suffered  God's  will,  now  he  may  do  that  will. 
He  has  been  trained  in  the  virtues  which  are  pas- 
sive, now  he  is  to  be  trained  in  those  which  are 
active.     He  has  often   criticised  the  rich  for  not 
being  more  widely  beneficent.     Now,  he  has  op- 
portunity to  set  them  an  example,  seeing  that  he 
has  come  into  their  rank,  and  has  their  oppor- 
tunities.    Yes,  let  him  rejoice.     He  may  not  be 
able  to  do  more  good  than  he  did  in  his  former 
position  ;  but  he  can  do  other  good.     But  let  him 
be   careful,   lest   he  begin  to  rejoice  in  the  fact 
that  he  has  now  reached  an  estate  in  which  he 
can  gratify  both  in  himself  and  in  his  family  "  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eyes  and  the  pride 
of  life."     But  if  he  receive  his  wealth  as  a  faithful 
and  humble  steward  of  his  Lord,  he  may  rejoice 
that  his  one  talent  has  been  made  five. 
FROM    HIGH    TO   LOW. 
"  Oh,  yes,"  says  some  one,  "  it  is  quite  easy  for 
the  poor  brother  to  rejoice  in  his  exaltation  ;  but 


58  The  Gospel  of  Comiuoji  Sense. 

how  about  the  otlier  brother  ?  He  has  been 
brought  low — well,  let  him  also  rejoice. 

Has  he  employed  his  riches  faithfully  and  well  ? 
Has  he  not  made  any  of  it  to  be  "  filthy  lucre  "  ? 
Has  he  used  it  as  his  Lord  would  have  him  use 
it  ?  Then  there  can  be  no  regrets.  If  it  had 
remained  with  him,  he  would  have  continued  the 
same  course  of  conduct.  There  may  be  some 
Satan  who  said  of  him  as  was  said  of  Job,  "  Doth 
Job  serve  God  for  nought  } "  Some  bitter  soul 
may  have  found  his  conduct  so  perfectly  con- 
sistent that  that  could  not  be  criticised,  and  so 
has  said  :  "Oh,  yes  ;  it  is  very  easy  for  /iv/i  to 
serve  God  ;  he  has  all  that  heart  could  wish  ;  he 
never  had  any  financial  cares  ;  he  never  has  to 
rack  his  brain  to  find  where  the  next  meal  is  to 
come  from."  God's  grace  is  counted  for  nothing 
by  such  an  observer.  Now,  the  formerly  rich 
brother  can  glorify  God  by  showing  that  divine 
grace  can  sustain  him  as  well  in  narrow  and  poor 
limits  as  it  had  done  in  large  and  wealthy  places. 
Let  the  reduced  brother  rejoice. 

Perhaps  he  has  misused  his  wealth.  Perhaps  be- 
yond a  good  and  liberal  living  for  himself  and  his 
family  he  has  pampered  them  and  hurt  himself, 
and  acquired  such  a  love  of  gold  as  shuts  out  the 
love  of  God.  He  may  have  spent  on  himself 
what  was  meant  for  mankind.  He  may  have 
been  accumulating  that  which  would  have  proved 
the  ruin  of  his  children. 


The  Gospel  of  Convnon  Sense.  59 

Let  the  faithful  as  well  as  the  unfaithful  broth- 
er who  has  been  brought  from  riches  to  pov^erty, 
rejoice  ;  because  (i)  the  change  occurring  in  the 
providence  of  God,  must  be  best  for  him  ;  because 
(2)  the  ties  that  bound  him  to  this  world  have 
been  lessened  and  loosened  ;  because  (3)  he  has 
been  relieved  of  a  great  responsibility  ;  and  be- 
cause (4)  in  no  case  has  he  been  robbed  by  the 
Lord,  but  in  many  senses  he  has  been  relieved 
by  the  Lord. 

A   HIGHER   THOUGHT. 

All  this  is  a  consideration  of  this  passage  on 
its  lower  ground  of  meaning.  But  there  is  mani- 
festly a  higher  thought  suggested,  and  one  which 
probably  was  in  the  mind  of  jAMES,  as  well  as 
that  which  we  have  been  considering.    It  is  this  : 

My  brother,  you  are  a  Hebrew-Christian.  You 
are  a  child  of  Abraham  and  a  servant  of  Je- 
hovah's Christ.  You  are  of  a  low  degree  of 
glory,  according  to  the  world's  estimation.  You 
have  no  high  political  or  social  position,  and 
you  have  no  great  wealth.  But,  yours  is  an  ex- 
alted life.  You  are  a  child  of  Abraham  and 
brother  of  Jesus.  You  have  a  light  not  "  seen 
on  sea  or  land  "  ;  an  inner  spiritual  capability  of 
discernment.  You  have  also  a  spiritual  power 
by  which  you  are  able  to  beat  down  Satan  under 
your  feet.  You  have  a  divine  companionship, 
since  Jehovah's  Christ  has  promised  that  He 
will  never  leave  you  nor   forsake  you.     You   are 


6o  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

now  immortal  ;  you  have  received  that  eternal 
life  which  is  the  gift  of  Jehovah  through  Jesus 
His  Christ.  When  all  the  thrones,  and  crowns, 
and  sceptres,  and  purples  of  all  the  monarchs 
now  in  power  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  shall 
have  gone  to  common  dust,  you  will  be  reigning 
with  Jehovah's  Anointed  in  a  kingdom  which  is 
not  of  this  world.  O  brother  of  low  degree,  re- 
joice in  your  exaltation.  To  this  great  height 
you  have  been  raised  by  your  Christian  faith. 
Your  worldly  position  may  always  be  low,  but 
no  power  can  deprive  you  of  that  spiritual  exal- 
tation which  they  have,  and  only  they,  whose  life 
is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

THE  FAITHLESS  POOR  CANNOT  REJOICE. 
The  poor  who  have  no  faith,  who  do  not  belong 
to  the  brotherhood  of  God's  spiritual  family,  have 
no  reason  to  rejoice.  While  poverty  is  no  dis- 
grace, it  certainly  is  no  honor.  It  is  a  very  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  there  is  anything  either 
ennobling  or  sanctifying  in  poverty.  There  are 
those  who  seem  to  believe  that  they  must  be 
happy  in  the  next  world  because  they  have  had 
so  hard  a  time  in  this  !  But  this  is  a  grievous 
mistake.  Afflictions  make  a  man  worse  unless 
they  be  properly  received  and  used.  They  work 
destruction  of  a  sinner's  peace  and  the  degrada- 
tion of  his  character.  But,  to  a  spiritual  child  of 
Abraham,  brought  into  the  family  by  Jesus  the 
Christ,  his  affliction  is  "  light,"  and  "  momentary," 


The  Gospel  of  CommjH  Sense.  6i 

and  "  working  "  for  him  "  more  and  more  exceed- 
ingly an  eternal  weight  of  glory,  while  he  is  look- 
ing not  at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the 
things  which  are  not  seen  "  (2  Cor.  4  :   17). 
THE   FAITHLESS   RICH   CANNOT    REJOICE. 

In  the  same  spirit  James  addresses  his  rich 
brother,  who  is  a  Christian  Israelite.  If  he  were 
a  sinner  he  would  have  no  ground  of  rejoicing 
that  his  coffers  were  full,  his  money  past  count 
and  his  credit  measureless.  With  all  these,  his 
separation  from  God,  his  lowness  of  character,  and 
his  certainty  of  final  wreck,  would  take  from  him 
every  ground  of  joy.  Great  riches  are  perilous. 
It  has  always  been  hard  for  a  rich  man  to  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  (Matt.  19  :  23).  Such 
a  one  never  has  entered  that  kingdom  without 
God's  special  help  of  grace.  Paul  said  (i  Tim. 
6:9),  "they  that  determine  to  be  rich  fall  into 
ensnaring  temptations  and  many  senseless  and 
ruinous  longings,  such  as  drown  men  in  des- 
truction and  loss."  That  always  takes  place 
when  he  makes  up  his  mind  deliberately  that  he 
will  be  rich,  that  to  that  end  all  other  things 
shall  yield  ;  personal  culture,  domestic  enjoy- 
ment, public  duties,  being  forced  to  stand  aside 
until  that  end  be  reached. 

But  even  if  a  man  have  not  made  that  end 
paramount,  if  he  have  come  to  his  great  wealth 
by  legitimate  means  or  by  inheritance,  riches 
have  the  effect  to  make  him  self-dependent  in  a 


62  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

way  which  draws  his  faith  from  God,  and  self-ex- 
ultant in  a  way  which  draws  his  love  from  his 
fellow-men. 

Such  a  man  should  rejoice  when  he  becomes  a 
Christian,  because  the  spirit  of  Christ  which  is  in 
him  will  adorn  his  life  with  the  beauty  of  humil- 
ity, which  is  never  so  lovely  as  when  seen  in  those 
whose  condition  militates  against  this  grace.  It 
will  keep  him  from  so  fixing  his  affections  upon 
material  things  as  to  draw  him  from  spiritual 
culture.  It  will  hold  him  to  such  a  state  of  mind 
that  if  the  summons  come  it  will  not  tear  him 
with  anguish  to  part  from  that  which  he  has 
made  too  large  a  part  of  his  life.  It  will  con- 
form his  life  to  that  of  our  Master,  who,  though 
He  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  became  poor,  that 
we  through  His  poverty  might  become  rich  (2, 
Cor.  8  :  9).  He  should  rejoice  in  that  religious 
faith  which  leads  him  to  use  the  perishing  prop- 
erties of  earth  so  as  to  transmute  them  into  the 
enduring  riches  of  eternity. 

THE   FAITHFUL   RICH. 

To  his  "brethren,"  to  those  who  are  in  the 
faith,  and  are  rich  in  that  state  of  spiritual  hu- 
mility into  which  they  have  been  brought  by 
the  Gospel  does  James  offer  this  ground  of  re- 
joicing :  that  they  are  delivered  from  the  anx- 
ieties which  torment  other  rich  men,  men  who 
are  never  certain  of  retaining  their  earthly  pos- 
sessions ;    and    those    are    the    only   riches  such 


The  Gospel  of  Coiniiioii  Sense.  6^ 

men  have.  They  are  no  more  secure  of  their 
position  than  the  flowers  of  the  fields.  The  very 
great  suddenness  of  the  change  is  indicated 
by  the  tenses  James  employe^.  They  had  seen 
such  flowers  in  all  their  morning  glory.  Sudden- 
ly, after  the  sun  had  risen,  there  had  come  a  hot 
wind  from  the  desert,  and  the  beautiful  flowers 
had  fallen  dishevelled  to  the  ground.  So  famil- 
iar is  the  sight,  that  in  all  literature  it  has  made 
a  favorite  figure  with  which  to  set  forth  the  in- 
stability of  earthly  riches. 

James  adds  another,  a  figure  employed  by  the 
Greek  poet  ^schylus,  that  of  the  drying  up  of  a 
stream.  The  life  of  a  rich  man  is  like  a  flowing 
stream,  which  runs  until  the  hot  land  through 
which  it  flows,  drinks  and  drinks  its  waters,  un- 
til the  stream  is  dried  up.     Then  all  is  gone. 

Now,  the  believer,  who  in  his  riches  is  leading 
a  holy,  humble  life,  and  steadily  employing  his 
wealth  as  the  Master  would  have  it,  knows 
that  he  has  a  house  not  made  with  human  hands, 
imperishable,  secured  in  the  heavens.  (2  Cor. 
5:1.)  If  money,  land,  and  other  properties  go, 
there  abide  with  him  the  true  riches  which  moth 
and  rust  cannot  corrupt,  and  which  thieves  can- 
not steal. 

We  shall  have  frequent  occasion  to  trace  re- 
semblances between  the  spoken  words  of  Jesus 
and  the  written  words  of  his  brother  James. 
This  is  the  first :  Jesus  (Matt.  5  :  3)  said  "  Blessed 


64  TJic  Gospel  of  Coninion  Sense. 

are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
the  heavens."  James  wrote,  "Let  the  brother  of 
low  degree  of  glory — let  him  shout — in  his  high 
estate." 

HAPPINESS   IN   TRIALS. 

Then,  as  if  summing  up  in  v.  12,  James  states 
his  theme — the  happiness  of  such  as  show  endur- 
ance in  temptation — ^' Happy  the  man  who  endures 
temptation,  for  being-  approved,  he  shall  receive  the 
crown  of  the  life  which  the  Lord  has  promised  to 
those  who  love  Him!' 

There  are  four  possible  experiences  in  regard 
to  the  trials  of  life,  (i)  They  may  fail  of  that 
which  may  be  their  best  result.  We  may  have 
the  troubles  of  life — indeed,  we  must  have  them 
— and  yet  we  may  fail  of  the  discipline.  (2)  They 
may  be  made  seductions  to  evil  and  yielded  to. 
(3)  They  may  be  suffered  just  as  brutes  suffer 
pain.  (4)  They  may  be  "  endured."  Blessed  is 
the  man  who  has  this  last  experience,  who  ac- 
cepts the  troubles  of  life  as  trials,  who  endures 
them,  going  on  his  way  of  duty  as  speedily  in  the 
storm  as  in  the  sunshine,  obeying  the  injunction, 
"Let  those  who  weep  be  as  though  they  wept 
not."  These  are  the  blessed  ones.  There  is  no 
blessing  for  the  untried  man,  as  there  is  no  cur- 
rency for  the  unstamped  bullion  ;  for  the  metal, 
however  precious,  which  is  not  marked  so  as  to 
show  that  it  has  been  tested  and  is  now  approved. 
There  is  no  blessing  for  the  man  who  yields  to 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  65 

temptation  or  fails  under  trial.  There  is  no  bless- 
ing to  him  who  has  brutal  insensibility  to  the 
pains  of  trial,  or  unconsciousness  of  the  process, 
as  the  anvil  is  unconscious  of  the  blows  of  the 
hammer.  But  there  is  a  blessing  for  the  man 
who  knows  what  is  going  forward,  who  under- 
stands the  intent,  and  appreciates  the  object,  and 
desires  the  result  of  the  process.  For  when  he 
has  become  approved,  after  the  testing  and  by- 
reason  of  the  testing,  ^^  he  shall  receive  the  crown 
of  the  life.''' 

It  does  not  seem  that  this  brilliant  writer  used 
his  words  carelessly.  He  does  not  say  "  diadem," 
which  signifies  kingly  distinction,  and  which  may 
fall  by  inheritance  upon  the  brow  of  the  meanest  of 
men;  but  he  says  "  crown,"  and  uses  a  word  which 
shows  that  the  wearer  has  somehow  been  in  con- 
flict, and  come  out  a  conqueror.  It  is  tJiat  which 
has  been  won.  It  is  a  mark  of  merit.  It  is  not 
"  a  crown,"  but  the  crown.  Crowns  may  fall  and 
perish  ;  but  the  crown  is  so  enduring  that  others 
are  scarcely  worth  mentioning.  It  is  "  the  crown 
of  Z/;^  life."  It  is  fadeless.  The  man  that  endur- 
eth  temptation  resembles  that  "  blessed  "  man  in 
Psalm  I,  who  is  "  like  a  tree  planted  by  rivers  of 
waters,"  whose  "  leaf  shall  not  wither." 

And  the  blessedness  of  wearing  that  crown 
shall  be  that  it  is  given  by  the  Lord.  Anything 
is  made  more  precious  by  being  touched  by 
Him.     Now,    He    makes    no    mistake.     Mortal 


66   '  The  Gospel  of  Cominon  Sense. 

judges  of  a  contest  may,  through  unconscious 
bias,  or  some  unworthy  motive,  or  through  ig- 
norance, or  some  other  human  infirmity,  award 
the  crown  to  the  undeserving  contestant  ;  but 
the  Lord  never  makes  a  mistake.  He  has  prom- 
ised it  to  a  certain  class,  and  He  knows  His 
own.  Those  who  are  to  receive  the  crown  are 
those  who  love  Him,  who  have  endured  trial, 
not  for  anything  which  can  gratify  any  low  de- 
sires of  their  own,  but  out  of  love  for  Him.  This 
is  the  secret  of  a  blessed  endurance.  With  the 
Lord,  love  is  everything.  There  is  no  holy  faith 
without  love,  no  trustworthy  hope,  no  worthy 
work.  It  is  love  that  begets  patience,  and  love 
for  the  Lord  is  so  high  and  powerful  that  it  en- 
ables a  man  to  endure  all  things  for  Him.  He 
has  the  constantly  sustaining  assurance  that  he 
loves  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  loves  him.  What 
a  happy  man  ! 


III. 

The  Temptation  to  Visionariness. 

CHAPTER   I.,    13-17. 
UNWORTHY   THOUGHTS   OF   GOD. 

JAMES  now  passes  from  external  trials  to  the 
consideration  of  a  condition  of  mind  into 
which    many  souls    are   brought    by   those 
trials. 

The  word  "  temptation,"  we  must  keep  in  mind, 
bears  the  three  meanings  (i)  of  trials,  (2)  of  evil 
suggestions,  and  (3)  of  seduction  to  sin.  We  all 
know  how  our  trials  work  on  our  weak  nature  to 
draw  us  into  the  viciousness  in  which  we  repre- 
sent God  as  the  author  of  evils  in  which  we 
indulge  ;  evils  spiritual  and  evils  carnal.  Do  we 
exhibit  weakness,  irascibility,  peevishness  .''  How 
apt  we  are  to  say  that  if  God  had  not  allowed 
troubles  to  come  upon  us,  we  should  never  have 
indulged  those  ugly  tempers.  Does  our  faith  fail, 
so  that  instead  of  holding  to  the  right  hand  of 
His  providence  and  seeking  shelter  in  the  bosom 
of  His  love,  we  resort  to  unchristian  ways  of  tak- 
ing care  of  ourselves  ?  We  charge  God  with  driv- 
ing us  to  this  course.  Do  we  lose  relish  for  holy 
things,  so  that  in  our  trouble  we  abandon  the 
bread  that  cometh  down  fronr)  heaven,  and  strive 


68  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

to  make  our  soul  full  by  feedintr  it  with  husks  of 
fleshly  enjoyment  ?  We  defend  ourselves  to  our- 
selves by  charging  God  with  driving  us  to  this 
recourse.  The  consolations  of  God  are  small  with 
us,  and  we  are  not  content  to  say  with  holy  Job, 
"Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him." 
He  hides  His  face  from  us,  and  we  are  not  true 
to  our  covenant  with  Him  ;  we  are  not  willing 
to  wait  until  the  shadows  pass  away  and  He  lift 
upon  us  the  light  of  His  countenance.  We  take 
ourselves  to  the  baleful  and  lurid  lights  of  our 
lusts ;  and  we  charge  God  with  the  result.  Thus 
James  supposed  that  there  might  be  those  among 
his  brethren  in  exile,  who  would  say  in  their 
hearts  that  the  unworthy  thoughts  of  God  and 
the  temptation  to  apostatize  which  had  come  to 
them  in  the  severe  trials  which  they  had  en- 
dured, were  to  be  laid  at  the  door  of  God,  and 
not  charged  to  them. 

Against  yielding  to  this  form  of  temptation, 
James  exhorts  :  ''Let  no  man  say  tvhen  he  is  se- 
duced to  evil  that  God  is  the  seducer''  (v.  13). 
THE   ORIGIN   OF   EVIL. 

The  origin  of  evil  has  been  the  most  puzzling 
riddle  submitted  to  man's  intellect  from  the  first 
record  of  human  thought  down  to  this  day.  As 
God  is  the  Eternal  One,  who  existed  before  all 
things,  and  consequently  before  sin,  men  have 
always  been  prone  to  make  Him  the  author  of 
evil.     "  He  foreknew  all  things,  and  He  made  all 


TJie  Gospel  of  Coinuion  Sense.  69 

things.  He  must  have  foreseen  that  man  would 
do  wrong  if  created  with  a  free  will  ;  and  yet  He 
so  created  him.  Does  not  that  make  God  the 
author  of  evil .''  "  That  was  the  mode  of  reason- 
ing of  the  ancient  philosophers.  The  modern 
mode  of  reaching  the  same  conclusion  is  some- 
what after  the  following  fashion  :  "  A  man's  life 
is  the  result  of  his  heredity  and  environment. 
He  did  not  make  his  ancestors,  and  he  did  not 
choose  his  place  in  human  society.  God  is  re- 
sponsible for  both,  and  therefore  responsible  for 
the  resulting  sin." 

NOT  IN   GOD. 

James  prostrates  both  these  arguments  at  a 
blow.  The  proper  method  of  procedure  is  to 
endeavor  to  ascertain  what  kind  of  being  God  is, 
and  then  infer  what  kind  of  things  He  has  done 
and  will  do.  Find  what  your  fountain  is  and  you 
can  determine  its  outflow.  If  you  take  the  water 
as  it  is  about  to  empty  into  the  sea  and  analyze 
it,  you  cannot  tell  what  it  was  as  it  burst  from 
the  fountain  into  the  granite  bowl  up  on  the 
mountain-top.  It  has  run  through  so  much  that 
was  not  clean  granite,  and  has  gathered  into  it- 
self so  much  of  such  different  things,  that  you 
cannot  tell  what  it  was  at  the  fountain. 

No.  You  cannot  tempt  God  into  being  even  a 
partner  in  your  sin,  in  the  most  remote  degree. 
God  is  untemptable  and  untempting.  In  His  di- 
vine consciousness  He  has  had  no  experience  of 


^o  TJie  Gospel  of  Cointnou  Se?isi\ 

sin,  and  in  the  forth-puttings  of  His  divine  activ- 
ities He  has  never  had  any  part  or  parcel  in  the 
suggestion  of  sin  to  others.  As  he  is  so  holy 
that  He  can  neither  tempt  nor  be  tempted  in  the 
bad  sense,  He  must  always  be  intending  good  ; 
as  He  is  omniscient,  He  must  always  know  what 
is  the  very  best ;  and  as  he  is  omnipotent,  He  must 
be  able  to  carry  it  to  the  conclusions  intended. 
We  find  man  as  God's  creature.  Whatever  may 
surround  that  fact,  we  know  that  it  is  better  that 
man  should  be  simply  because  he  is.  As  man 
has  freedom  of  will,  and  could  not  exist  as  man 
without  freedom  of  will,  we  know  that  it  is  best 
that  there  should  be  freedom  of  will  in  man. 
No  ;  without  absurdity,  we  cannot  think  of  God 
as  the  author  of  sin. 

Nor  is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  a  world  in 
which  there  should  be  existing  two  intelligent, 
moral  beings,  that  is,  beings  having  relationship 
and  consequently  ethical  possibilities,  without  the 
possible  existence  of  sin  ;  because  sin  is  a  viola- 
tion of  relations,  and  the  existence  of  one  man 
and  of  one  God  would  institute  relationships 
which  would  create  obligations.  Virtue  consists 
in  the  exercise  of  the  will  to  choose  to  meet  and 
discharge  all  duties  produced  by  obligation.  But 
if  a  man  can  choose  such  a  course  as  that,  he  can 
also  choose  the  opposite.  And  that  opposite  is 
evil. 


The  Gospel  of  Comnion  Sense.  7 1 

IN    THE    INDIVIDUAL. 

Thus  James  gives  us  the  genesis  of  evil.  It  is 
in  the  individual  man.  The  man  is  drawn  away 
from  good  and  caught  in  evil  by  his  own  lust. 
The  writer  lays  special  emphasis  on  this  :  it  is 
"  Jiis  ozvn  ;  "  it  is  not  of  God  ;  it  is  not  of  the  devil  ; 
it  is  not  of  the  world  ;  it  is  of  the  man's  self  and 
in  the  man's  self.  It  is  that  in  his  soul  without 
the  exhibition  of  which  there  would  be  nothing 
to  which  the  work  of  the  devil  could  appeal.  It 
is  most  important  to  perceive  and  believe  this  ;  it 
is  most  important  to  inculcate- in  all  children  that 
it  is  a  mistake  to  lay  their  faults  on  any  one  else, 
even  on  the  devil.  That  personage  has  enough 
to  bear  without  having  our  sins  laid  upon  him. 
No  sinner  can  be  reformed  so  long  as  he  makes 
Satan  or  anyone  else  responsible  for  his  trans- 
gressions. I  knew  a  child  of  strong  character 
and  strong  passions,  who  used  to  have  paroxysms 
of  rage.  Her  parents  and  others  would  some- 
times tell  her  to  open  her  mouth  and  let  the  bad 
spirit  go  under  the  table.  The  child  was  grow- 
ing into  the  belief  that  she  was  the  innocent  vic- 
tim of  an  unseen  being,  who  was  another  person, 
and  she  was  learning  to  shift  all  the  responsibil- 
ity upon  that  person,  that  person  not  herself.  A 
friend  one  day  taught  her  the  fallacy  of  this ; 
showed  her  that  she  was  the  only  person  respon- 
sible ;  that  she  herself  was  the  bad  spirit,  and 
there    was    nothing  to   do   but  have  that  spirit. 


^2  The   Gospel  of  Coniiiion   SciisC. 

namely,  herself,  totally  changed.  She  went  to 
her  closet  and  prayed — prayed  as  King  David 
prayed  (Ps.  51)  when  the  conviction  seized  him 
that  it  was  against  God,  and  God  only,  that  he 
had  sinned.  His  cry  rang  with  "  my  trangres- 
sions,"  ''my  iniquity,"  "  wj' sin."  There  was  no 
third  party  in  the  transaction.  From  the  hour 
the  child  had  that  conviction,  she  was  a  changed 
person. 

So   must   we    all    feel.      We    can   never   resist 
temptation    as   we    should,  so    long  as  we  hold 
God  or  any  one  else  responsible  for  our  sins. 
HEREDITY. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  heredity.  That  is 
perfectly  well  settled.  There  is  an  inherited  de- 
pravity of  nature  in  every  man.  You  have  it. 
Run  your  eye  along  the  line  of  your  depravity 
both  ways.  It  came  from  your  parents,  and 
theirs  from  their  ancestors.  Some  one  must  be 
responsible.  If  our  ancestors  had  resisted,  the 
taint  might  have  been  eliminated  or  modified. 
No  one  of  them  was  guilty  because  he  inherited 
it ;  but  he  was  guilty  for  any  increase  thereof 
which  he  sent  down  to  his  descendants.  So  will 
you  and  I  be  if  we  do  not  fight  with  all  the 
weapons  and  aids  in  our  reach  against  the  seduc- 
tions to  sin. 

Men  seem  sometimes  to  forget  the  obvious 
truth  that  heredity  is  a  line  which  does  not  stop 
at  them.     If  they  recollected  this  truth  perhaps 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  73 

they  would  resist  sin  more  strenuously.  Many  a 
man  says,  "  Well,  it's  in  my  blood,  as  my  grand- 
father's gluttony  is  in  my  gout.  I  can't  help  it. 
There's  no  use  trying."  And  in  that  temper  he 
throws  himself  heedlessly  upon  all  ways  of  sinn- 
ing. And  so  the  next  generation  has  increased 
depravity.  But  God  has  no  responsibility  in  this 
matter. 

ENVIRONMENT. 

In  like  manner  we  must  consider  our  environ- 
ment. Every  man  must  be  born  somewhere.  He 
must  have  father  and  mother.  He  cannot  exist 
without  some  environment.  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  of  any  environment  which  may  not 
appeal  to  a  human  being  in  the  way  of  seduction 
to  evil.  Therefore,  no  man  must  lay  his  sin  to 
his  environment,  and  through  that  to  God.  His 
environment  all  the  more  evil  it  is,  calls  upon 
him  all  the  more  loudly  for  a  virtuous  battle 
against  that  which  appeals  to  him  to  draw  him 
into  sin.  God  cannot  be  held  responsible  if  the 
man  do  not  make  the  effort  to  be  virtuous. 

Let  it  be  understood,  then,  by  us  all  and  for- 
ever, that  God  never  puts  before  us  or  around  us 
anything  intended  by  Him  to  influence  us  to  do 
wrong.  Let  us  pull  up  that  bad  thought  by  the 
roots.  Let  us  never  for  a  moment  give  place  to 
the  suggestion  that  by  those  decrees  and  arrange- 
ments by  which  the  world  was  made  and  goes 
forward,  God  has  arranged  things  so  that  there 


74  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  ^ense. 

% 
must  be  sin  sometime,  somewhere,  by  somebody. 

Even  when  others  tempt  us,  sometimes  those 
very  near  to  us  and  dear  to  us,  as  our  husbands, 
or  our  wives,  or  our  parents,  or  our  children,  our 
pastors  or  intimate  Christian  friends,  when  it 
seems  as  if  God  might  have  prevented  it,  but  by 
allowing  it,  becomes  responsible ;  even  when 
there  are  a  thousand  things  which  cannot  be 
explained,  some  of  them  very  torturing  to  a  sen- 
sitive Christian  ;  under  all  circumstances,  let  us 
remember  tnat  one  thing  has  been  settled  most 
thoroughly  and  forever  by  the  explicit  declara- 
tion, God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  neither 
tempteth  He  any  man. 

THE  GENESIS  OF  EVIL. 
No  ;  the  source  of  the  evil  is  in  us.  James 
gives  the  genesis  of  it.  His  psychology  is  that 
of  St.  Paul  and  of  the  New  Testament  generally. 
A  man  is  spirit,  soul  and  body.  The  real  person- 
ality of  the  man  is  his  spirit.  There  is  his  per- 
manent identity.  There  is  his  emperorship  ;  for 
in  the  spirit  is  the  will.  The  body  is  the  spirit's 
home  and  the  spirit's  instrument  of  communication 
with  the  outer  world,  that  world  which  has  the 
qualities  of  matter.  The  soul  is  the  connecting 
link  between  the  body  and  spirit.  In  the  soul 
are  the  desires  for  the  things  which  are  known 
by  the  senses.  It  is  here  that  James  finds  the 
origin  of  evil.  Desire  is  quite  innocent  in  its 
normal    conditions.     It   becomes    excited    under 


The  Gospel  of  Connnon  Sejue.  7^ 

the  influence  of  the  things  in  the  outward  world ; 
of  those  things  of  which  it  has  knowledge  in  the 
body,  or  by  means  of  the  body.  If  those  things 
are  according  to  the  will  of  God  and  the  desire 
solicits,  and  secures  the  consent  of  the  spirit, 
then  the  indulgence  of  the  senses  produces  that 
which  is  good.  But  if  the  desire  is  stirred  toward 
that  which  is  contrary  to  the  will  of  God  and  it 
proceeds  to  solicit  the  spirit,  without  whose  con- 
sent nothing  can  be  done,  and  succeeds  in  gain- 
ing the  consent  of  the  spirit,  then  comes  sin. 
"  DRAWN   AWAY  "   AND   "  ENTICED." 

Such  seems  to  be  the  psychologic  basis  of 
James's  argument.  Then  he  describes  the 
genesis  and  progress  of  sin.  '^  But  each  man  is 
tempted  by  his  own  lust,  zvhen  he  is  being  drawn 
away  by  it  and  enticed""  (v.  14).  It  is  a  power- 
ful picture  which  he  paints.  Desire  is  repre- 
sented as  a  harlot  soliciting  the  spirit  to  an 
impure  embrace.  This  harlot's  arts  are  repre- 
sented under  two  words,  taken  from  hunting  and 
fishing.  As  the  hunter  draws  his  game  frorh 
some  safe  covert,  as  the  fisherman  baits  his  hook 
and  catches  the  fish,  so  the  harlot  employs  allure- 
ments to  draw  away  the  solicited  person  from  all 
those  protections  to  his  innocency  which  might 
save  him,  that  she  may  then  overcome  him  with 
her  blandishments. 

It  is  well  to  pause  for  profitable  self-application 
of  this  great  truth.     We  cannot  be  "  enticed  "  un< 


'j()  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

til  "drawn  away."  Let  every  fish  keep  to  his 
cover.  Let  no  man  rush  into  temptation.  Let 
none  of  us  go  into  "doubtful  places,"  by  which 
phrase  we  ought  to  understand  not  simply  those 
places  which  are  known  to  be  dangerous,  but  also 
those  places  which  are  not  knozvn  to  he  safe.  Let 
our  society  be  chosen  of  those  who  are  known  to 
be  pure  and  wholesome,  not  of  those  whose  in- 
fluence over  us  is  uncertain. 

COMPANIONS   AND   AMUSEMENTS. 

How  much  would  be  saved  in  our  ordinary  life 
if  this  rule  were  observed  !  If,  in  our  every-day 
table-life,  we  used  such  food  in  such  quantities 
as  we  know  to  be  wholesome,  and  avoided  every 
article  of  diet  of  whose  effect  upon  our  stomachs 
we  were  doubtful,  how  much  physical  and  mental 
suffering  we  should  avoid  !  If,  in  the  choice  ot 
our  companions,  we  associated  only  with  such 
persons  as  we  knew  to  be  good,  and  forsook  all 
those  whose  characters  were  merely  dubious,  how 
many  disagreeable  and  injurious  complications 
we  should  escape  !  If,  in  the  choice  of  our  books 
we  selected  only  such  as  were  known  to  be  abso- 
lutely unexceptionable  in  moral  tone,  while  good 
in  literary  style,  how  much  corruption  of  the 
imagination,  and  soiling  of  the  soul,  and  pain  of 
conscience  we  should  be  spared  ! 

Let  the  same  rule  be  applied  everywhere.  The 
question  of  amusements  and  other  enjoyments 
often  arises,  especially  with  young  Christian  peo- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  yj 

pie.  It  is  the  glittering  fly  thrown  into  the 
water  by  the  skilful  angler.  Its  brilliant  colors 
can  do  no  harm  to  the  fish  that  stays  away  from 
it.  Let  the  young  man  confine  himself  to  such 
amusements  as  no  one  suspects  of  being  harmful 
and  he  is  safe. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  every  man  must  be 
amused  ;  that  is,  drawn  away  from  strenuous 
thought,  so  that  he  may  return  fresher  to  that 
work  which  is  necessary.  If  a  man  were  so  con- 
stituted that  he  could  maintain  the  mental  and 
bodily  exercise  necessary  for  the  discharge  of 
those  duties  on  which  his  own  welfare  depends, 
as  well  as  the  welfare  of  others,  for  him  there 
would  be  no  need  of  amusement.  The  neces- 
sity for  its  existence  lies  in  the  necessity  for  se- 
rious thought,  which  cannot  be  kept  in  endless 
continuity.  We  have  not  the  word  "musement" 
in  the  English  language  as  a  synonyme  for  "se- 
rious thought."  If  we  had,  then  its  opposite 
word  would  be  "  amusement,"  as  one's  "evoca- 
tion" is  that  which  calls  him  off  from  his  "voca- 
tion," which  is  his  regular  calling  in  life.  What- 
soever, then,  rests  a  man,  leaves  him  in  the  best 
condition  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  to  return  to 
the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  life,  that  is  the 
amusement  which  he  can  indulge  with  perfect 
impunity.  When  anything  else  is  offered,  let 
him  remember  the  fisherman's  arts,  copied  by  the 
harlot,  and  used  by  James  to  describe  the  first 
part  cf  the  journey  to  destruction. 


78  The  Gospel  of  Coniinon  Sense. 

THE   PLAN   OF  THE   SEDUCER. 

Is  it  not  always  the  plan  of  a  soul-destroyer  to 
draw  his  victim  from  a  safe  retreat  ?  Does  the 
gambler,  the  conspirator,  or  the  harlot  ever  go  up 
into  your  home,  and  enter  the  apartment,  where 
you  are  sitting  between  your  venerable  mother 
and  your  pure  sister,  near  the  paternal  hearth- 
stone, and  "  entice  "  you,  endeavoring  there  and 
then  to  induce  you  to  engage  in  open  wickedness  ? 
Never.  But  the  first  arts  of  one  who  seeks  you 
for  a  partner  in  guilt  are  to  draw  you  away  from 
your  moral  defences,  knowing  how  easily  a  small 
party  can  resist  a  great  force  attacking  a  well- 
fortified  castle,  a  party  which  in  an  open  field 
would  be  instantly  overwhelmed  by  the  superior 
army. 

So  men  are  often  drawn  from  the  bulwark  of 
the  light  into  the  defencelessness  of  darkness. 
You  may  walk  with  a  measure  of  safety  through 
any  city  during  the  day  ;  but  the  social  beasts  of 
prey,  like  those  of  the  forests,  walk  forth  in  the 
night.  It  would  save  the  young  men  who  go  to 
large  cities,  and  old  men  as  well,  if  they  made 
the  rule  to  keep  their  confidence,  and  even  their 
company,  from  strangers  who  address  them.  A 
man  is  safe  so  long  as  he  stays  in  his  hotel,  and 
hears  what  any  stranger  has  to  say,  but  allows  the 
stranger  to  know  nothing  about  himself  or  his 
affairs.  He  is  on  the  way  to  trouble  when  he 
gommits  himself  to  any  strange  man  on  the  street. 


The  Gospel  of  Cominoii  Sense.  79 

to  be  led  he  knows  not  whither.  He  is  on  the 
highway  to  destruction  if  he  allow  himself  to  hold 
any  conversation  with  any  "strange  woman"  he 
may  meet  on  the  street.  The  "  strange  woman  " 
has  been  the  person  to  be  avoided  from  the  days 
of  Solomon  to  this  day. 

"  Drawn  away  !  "  That  is  the  first  danger. 
Drawn  away  from  the  father's  counsel,  drawn 
away  from  the  mother's  influence,  drawn  away 
from  the  sanctuary  of  the  church  service,  drawn 
away  from  the  sanctities  of  the  Lord's  Day,  drawn 
away  from  the  teaching  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Whoever  takes  the  first  step  does  not  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  take  the  next  and  the  next,  and  whoso- 
ever takes  those  few  steps  cannot  be  far  from  the 
destruction  of  all  those  things  which  are  most 
valuable  to  a  man.  There  is  almost  no  difficulty 
in    "enticing"   a   man    who    has    been    "drawn 

away." 

A    HORRIBLE    PICTURE. 

But  if  the  man  allow  himself  to  be  drawn  away 
and  enticed,  something  dreadful  will  follow. 
"  Then  Desire,  having  eonceived,  brings  forth  Sin, 
and  Sin  completed  becomes  pregnant  zvith  death  " 
(vv.  15,  16). 

What  a  frightful  picture  JAMES  paints.  De- 
sire has  successfully  solicited  the  will  to  an 
impure  embrace.  In  the  unblessed  union  the 
child.  Sin,  is  conceived  and  finally  brought  forth. 
It  is  a  little  one.     It  may  be    as   pretty  and   as 


8o  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

playful  as  a  tiger's  kitten.  But  it  grows.  When 
Sin,  which  is  so  vigorous,  has  attained  its  growth 
it  becomes  a  dreadful  parent,  and  its  fearful  off- 
spring is  Death.  Before  a  man  sins  let  him  con- 
sider this  tremendous  genealogy.  The  sinner  is 
the  father  of  his  own  sin  and  the  grandfather  of 
his  own  death.  It  is  all  inside  himself.  It  is  not 
of  God  ;  it  is  not  of  God  ! 

Whatever  may  have  been  jAMES's  special 
thought  and  intention  as  towards  his  Hebrew 
brethren,  however  much  he  may  have  endeavored 
to  warn  them  against  that  road  which  leads  to 
complete  and  final  apostasy,  the  lesson  to  us  is 
plain.  Sin  continued  grows  stronger  and  stronger 
by  habit,  until  it  has  obtained  such  dominion  of 
us  as  to  strangle  the  spirit  and  thus  make  a 
complete  wreck  of  the  whole  man.  So,  while 
James  is  endeavoring  to  save  us  from  having 
wrong  thoughts  of  God,  as  if  providential  trials 
were  temptations  in  the  bad  sense,  according  to 
the  Rabbinical  metaphor,  he  thrills  us  with  a 
stirring  warning  against  the  dangerous,  the  ruin- 
ous nature  of  sin,  which  at  first  may  be  like  a 
spider's  web,  but  afterwards  becomes  a  strong 
cable. 

Having  done  this,  he  returns  to  the  correction 
of  the  error  into  which  we  are  prone  to  fall. 
That  correction  he  finds  in  setting  before  us  the 
opposite  truth.  So  far  is  God  from  being  the  au- 
thor of  evil,  He  is  the  only  author  of  any  good. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  8i 

He  is  the  author  of  all  good  ;  there  is  no  good 
which  does  not  proceed  from  God,  as  certainly  as 
there  is  no  evil  which  does  not  have  its  origin 
outside  of  God. 

A   GREAT   ERROR. 

^'' Do  not  err.,  my  brethren  beloved^'  says  our 
author,  v.  i6 ;  do  not  wander  away  from  the 
truth  as  to  the  essential  nature  of  God. 

It  may  be  well  to  consider  the  verse  as  being 
more  than  a  mere  rhetorical  call  to  something 
very  important  which  the  writer  had  to  say.  It 
does  that  most  effectually,  but  it  does  something 
more.  It  emphasizes  the  importance  of  having 
correct  views  of  God.  In  regard  to  other  things, 
wander  into  the  forests  of  falsehood  so  far  as  one 
may,  the  man  who  holds  the  truth  as  to  God  can 
never  be  finally  lost.  And  yet  how  few  seem  to 
appreciate  that.  Any  philosophy  of  physical 
science  is  unsound  and  untrustworthy  in  propor- 
tion to  its  holding  unsound  relations  to  the  truth 
as  to  God.  The  same  is  true  in  civil  life  :  no 
man  can  attain  to  the  loftiest  statesmanship, 
whose  principles  of  government  are  not  in  har- 
monious accord  with  the  truth  as  to  God.  It  is 
equally  true  in  the  religious  life  :  heresies  in  doc- 
trine, errors  in  morals,  and  wrongs  in  life  are  to 
be  traced  almost  invariably  to  some  mistake  of 
the  truth  as  to  God.  Let  a  man  be  right  here, 
and  he  has  found  a  hasp  on  which  he  may  hang 
the  first  link  of  any  chain  of  thought  or  action  or 


82  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

life  which  he  may  be  able  to  forge  in  time  and  in 
eternity.  Do  not  wander  from  the  great  central 
truth  as  to  God. 

A  GREAT  TRUTH. 

And  this  is  that  great  central  truth. 

^^  Every  gift  that  is  good,  and  every  perfect  en- 
dowment is  from  above,  coming  down  from  the 
Father  of  lights.''  No  man  has  anything  good 
which  has  been  produced  by  his  own  nature. 
All  good  is  from  outside.  That  is  the  first  part 
of  the  truth.  James  employs  in  this  sentence 
the  very  word  which  Jesus  used  in  speaking  to 
Nicodemus  in  regard  to  the  new  birth  (John  3  :  3), 
"  begotten  from  above.''  It  teaches  the  truth 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  spontaneous  regen- 
eration. So,  His  brother  James  teaches  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  spontaneous  goodness 
among  men.  If  there  be  anything  good  in  the 
universe,  enjoyed  by  men  or  beasts,  or  any  other 
thing  living  in  heaven  or  on  earth,  visible  or  in- 
visible, it  is  the  gift  of  God.  If  it  be  a  transient 
good,  enjoyed  and  then  gone,  so  that  nothing 
but  the  memory  of  the  enjoyment  is  left,  it  is  the 
gift  of  God.  If  it  be  the  fountain  of  a  stream 
rolling  out  pleasure  or  power  to  irrigate  the 
world,  it  is  the  gift  of  God.  The  universe  may  be 
searched.  If  anywhere  anything  can  be  found 
which  any  intellect  can  perceive,  and  any  heart 
can  feel  to  be  good,  it  has  come  from  God.  If  it 
be  good  for  any  man's  body,  good  for  any  man's 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  83 

soul,  good  for  any  man's  spirit,  if  it  be  good  for 
any  other  animal,  if  it  be  good  for  the  present  or 
future  inhabitants  of  the  earth — find  a  good  thing, 
and  you  find  a  Godsend. 

Among  the  good  things,  the  best  is  light,  the 
physical  light  which  makes  the  things  of  the  outer 
world  visible,  the  intellectual  light  which  enables 
any  man  to  see  truths  and  their  relations,  the 
spiritual  light  which  enables  a  man  to  walk  as 
seeing  Him  that  is  invisible  and  the  invisible  world 
by  which  He  is  surrounded.  God  is  the  Father  of 
"lights,"  the  source  of  all  conceivable  modes  of 
illumination,  and  He  pours  down  upon  men  all  the 
good  things  they  have.  It  is  not  a  shower,  an  oc- 
casional gift  of  things  desirable,  but  it  is  an  un- 
ceasing rain  of  blessings.  It  is  incessant  sunshine. 
As  at  all  hours  rays  of  light  are  going  ofif  in  all 
directions  from  the  sun,  and  covering  all  the 
space  of  the  solar  system,  so  are  God's  gifts  going 
from  Him,  descending  from  Him,  ceaselessly,  in  an 
unbroken  stream  of  blessing  and  an  uninterrupted 
radiation  of  light. 

THE    FATHER   OF   LIGHTS. 

He  is  the  Father  of  lights,  the  producer  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  the  source  of  all  the  Hght  of 
knowledge,  all  the  light  of  wisdom,  all  the  light 
of  faith,  all  the  light  of  hope,  all  the  light  of  love, 
all  the  light  of  joy.  If  any  man  arise  in  his 
generation  to  shine  as  a  star  in  the  hemisphere  ot 
human   society,  God  kindled  the  splendor  of  his 


84  The  Gospel  of  Couinion  Sense, 

intellect  and  the  benign  radiance  of  his  high 
spiritual  character.  If  any  woman  arise  to  bright- 
en a  home,  or  send  the  kindly  light  of  her  sweet- 
ness over  any  cheerless  portion  of  our  race,  it  was 
God  who  dwelt  in  her  heart,  and  smiled  through 
her  life.  If  on  the  coast  of  our  humanity,  we, 
mariners  on  life's  uncertain  sea,  behold  light- 
houses so  placed  along  the  shore  as  to  enable  us 
to  take  bearings  and  shape  courses  that  bring  us 
to  our  havens  of  safety,  it  is  God  who  has  erected 
each  such  light-house  and  kindled  each  such 
pharos. 

The  world  can  never  cease  being  grateful  for 
Moses,  and  David,  and  Paul  ;  for  Homer,  and 
Plato,  and  Shakespeare ;  for  Copernicus,  Kepler, 
and  Newton;  for  Jerome,  and  Luther,  and  Wes- 
ley—  the  great  lights  of  philosophy,  poetry  and 
piety.  It  must  be  remembered  that  none  of 
these  came  of  themselves  ;  that  they  were  all 
kindled  by  the  Father  of  lights.  The  great  Hght 
which  inwardly  "enlighteneth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world  is  a  light  that  streams 
from  God.  And  He  who  dared  to  declare  of 
Himself  what  no  one  has  yet  shown  to  be  untrue, 
"  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  ;  he  that  followeth 
Me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the 
light  of  life  " — He  was  the  Son  of  God. 

All  through  human  society  at  this  day  we  find 
followers  of  Jesus — men  "blameless  and  harm- 
less, the    sons   of  God,   without  rebuke,   in  the 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  85 

midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse  nation,  among 
whom  they  shine  as  lights  in  the  world  "  (Phil. 
2:15),  and  we  know  that  they  are  not  the  product 
of  any  malevolent  spirit  ;  we  know  that  they 
themselves  did  not  produce  the  light  which 
shineth  in  them  ;  we  know  that  for  them  we  are 
indebted  to  God,  who  calls  Himself '  the  Father 
of  Lights." 

THE  CHANGELESS  FATHER. 
Of  this  God,  who  is  the  giver  of  every  transient 
gift  which  is  good,  and  every  permanent  endow- 
ment which  is  valuable,  James  says  :  "  VVithivhom 
there  is  not  existing  a  change  or  shadoiv-casting." 
He  took  his  metaphor  from  nature.  His  readers 
would  immediately  think  of  the  sun,  the  ruler  of 
the  solar  system.  And  that  would  remind  them  of 
the  very  obvious  phenomena  of  the  sun's  decli- 
nature to  the  south  and  return  to  the  north,  as 
the  seasons  succeed  one  another,  and  the  alter- 
nations of  day  and  night.  If  these  suggested 
any  mutability,  or  variability  or  inconstancy  in 
God,  anything  indeed  which  might  weaken  our 
faith,  he  adds  that  God  is  not  only  the  giver  of 
every  good  and  perfect  gift,  but  He  is  also  with- 
out variableness  or  shadow-making.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  press  the  astronomical  figures  which 
he  employs.  It  is  clear  that  he  means  to  assert 
most  emphatically  two  things  about  God,  name- 
ly, that  with  Him  there  is  no  alienation  of  good- 
ness and  no  obscuration  of  goodness.  As  one 
says,  "  God  is  always  in  the  meridian." 


86  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Of  such  a  God  it  would  be  absurd  to  suppose 
that  He  could  be  the  author  of  evil  or  the  tempt- 
er of  His  mortal  children.  Any  logical  pro- 
cesses which  landed  a  mind  on  that  proposition 
may  thence  be  inferred  to  be  illegitimate  and 
vicious. 


IV. 

The  New  Life  versus  Fanaticism. 

CHAPTER    I.,    18-27. 
REGENERATION. 

JAMES  presses  upon  his  readers  the  idea  of 
God's  invariable  goodness  in  another  form.  He 
appeals  to  their  experience  in  regeneration. 
In  proof  of  the  proposition  that  God,  the  Father 
of  lights,  cannot  do  evil  but  good,  always  and  in 
every  direction,  there  was  the  fact  of  their  own 
conversion  to  Christianity,  and  their  spiritual 
new-birth.  ^'According  to  His  free  determina- 
tion He  hath  brv2ight  us  forth,  by  the  word  of  His 
truth,  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first-fruit  of  His 
creatures  "  (v.  18). 

Here  is  a  splendid  specimen  of  God's  good  gifts, 
in  that  He  has  given  us  eternal  life  through  His 
Son  Jesus.  This  life  is  the  climax  of  divine  good- 
ness, as  Death,  the  child  of  sin,  is  the  climax  of 
human  badness.  It  was  free.  It  came  by  no 
law,  it  was  produced  by  no  necessity,  it  was  the 
product  of  no  natural  evolution,  it  arose  from  His 
own  goodness  and  lovingness.  He  emphasizes 
"us"  in  addressing  Hebrew-Christians.  They 
were  originally  chosen  by  His  divine  goodness  to 
be  the  repository  of  the  oracles  of  God,  the  ark, 


88  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

so  to  speak,  which  should  bear  the  truth  of  God 
down  the  stream  of  the  centuries.  When  the 
fuhiess  of  time  had  come,  and  Jesus  inaugurated 
the  ripened  plans  for  the  world's  salvation,  those 
Israelites  who  earliest  became  Christians,  had  the 
distinction  of  being  a  kind  of  first-fruits  of  all 
God's  creatures.  Christianity  had  completed  to 
them  the  revelation  that  under  God  the  highest 
beings  are  men,  that  humanity  is  to  take  the  lead 
of  the  universe,  that  men  are  superior  to  angels, 
and  men  are  to  live  forever,  and  are  to  lead  and 
govern  and  teach  the  intelligences  of  the  universe, 
that  those  individuals  of  humanity  who  are  to  do 
this,  are  those  who  receive  eternal  life  through 
Jesus  Christ,  and  that  the  first,  as  the  first-fruits 
of  an  abundant  harvest,  are  those  Jews  who  were 
early  in  Christ,  having  been  begotten  by  the 
word  of  truth. 

It  is  as  if  he  had  said  to  them,  "  Think  of  it, 
brethren.  Poor,  unknown,  despised,  both  among 
the  Gentiles  and  in  your  own  nationality,  you  are 
heirs  of  God  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ  Jesus. 
Born  children  of  Abraham,  ye  have  been  reborn 
brothers  of  Jesus.  Whoever  else  may  by  any 
process  of  thought  be  betrayed  into  accounting 
God  the  author  of  evil,  you  never  can.  To 
you  He  must  ever  be  the  Giver  of  every  good 
gift,  physical,  intellectual,  spiritual,  temporal  and 
eternal." 


The  Gospel  of  CoDimoii  Sense.  89 

FANATICISM. 

James  now  passes  to  an  admonition  to  his 
brethren  against  fanaticism  as  another  form  of 
temptation.  He  proceeds:  '■'Let  every  man  be 
sivift  to  hear,  slotu  to  speak,  slow  to  wrath;  for 
the  wrath  of  man  does  not  tvork  the  righteousness 
of  God.  Wherefore,  removing  all  impurity,  and 
all  outjloiving,  in  meekness  receive  the  ingrafted 
word,  the  thing  which  is  able  to  save  your  souls. 
But,  become  doers  of  the  word  and  not  hearers 
only,  deluding  your  oivn  selves.  For,  if  any  one  is 
a  hearer  of  the  word  and  not  a  doer,  he  is  like  unto 
a  man  observing  his  natural  face  in  a  mirror,  for 
he  observed  himself,  and  he  hath  gone  azvay,  and  he 
forgot  wliat  sort  of  a  man  he  zvas.  But  he  tvho 
becomes  absorbed  in  the  completed  lazv,  the  law  of 
liberty,  and  continues,  not  a  hearer  that  forgets, 
but  a  doer  who  works,  this  man  shall  be  blessed  in 
his  doings y 

The  well-known  wisdom  of  swiftness  to  hear 
and  slowness  to  speak,  has  been  inculcated  by 
teachers  in  all  ages.  On  his  disciples  Pythago- 
ras enjoined  five,  years  of  preliminary  silence.  It 
was  supposed  that  such  a  long  probation  in  which 
there  should  be  total  abstinence  from  speech 
would  give  the  disciple  the  advantage  of  hearing 
much  and  hearing  it  attentively  ;  because  the 
mind  was  not  preoccupied  with  preparing  and 
uttering  an  answer.  There  was  supposed  to  be 
also  the  other  advantage  of  pondering  what  was 


go  TJic  Gospel  of  Conivion  Se7ise. 

heard;  so  that  it  should  be  well  marked  and 
thoroughly  digested.  Some  one  has  called  at- 
tention to  the  fact,  that  a  man  has  two  ears  and 
but  one  tongue,  and  inferred  therefrom  that  a 
man  ought  to  hear  at  least  twice  as  much  as  he 
speaks. 

SWIFT   TO   HEAR   AND   SLOW   TO   SPEAK. 

As  touching  the  matter  of  which  James  had 
been  writing  to  his  brethren,  namely,  their 
troubles  and  the  temptations  likely  to  arise  there- 
from, this  admonition  was  most  timely.  They 
should  be  swift  to  hear.  God,  who  had  spoken 
to  Elijah  in  the  still  small  voice,  was  now  speaking 
to  them  in  their  great  trials.  God  is  talking. 
He  may  speak  slowly.  We  must  "  wait  God's 
leisure."  We  must  be  attentive  to  the  voice  in 
the  darkness,  as  little  Samuel  was  to  the  night- 
voice  in  the  Temple.  "  God  is  His  own  interpre- 
ter ; "  but  He  never  hurries  ;  with  Him  a  thou- 
sand years  are  as  a  day. 

And  so  we  must  be  slow  to  speak  ;  very  slow 
to  make  our  own  interpretation  ;  and  slower  in 
making  charges  against  God.  If  we  speak  in- 
continently, we  shall  not  only  be  indiscreet,  but 
we  shall  excite  ourselves  to  anger.  The  tongue 
kindles. 

See  what  folly  it  is  to  be  angry  against  God  for 
His  providences.  Do  we  know  what  God  is  do- 
ing }  Does  not  God  know  all  things  .''  Can  He 
not  relieve  "i     And  will   He  not    relieve   at   the 


The  Gospel  of  Comuion  Sense.  91 

proper  time  and  in  the  proper  manner  ?  See 
what  a  sin  it  is:  that  great,  black  sin  of  ingratitude. 
Has  not  every  good  gift  enjoyed  by  us  come  from 
Him  ?  What  led  Him  to  the  bestovvment  of 
those  gifts  ?  Was  not  the  motive  wholly  in 
Him  ?  Does  He  ever  change  ?  Is  he  not  the 
same  ?  Whatsoever,  therefore,  comes  from  Him 
must  be  good. 

It  is  well  to  regulate  our  lives  by  the  great 
precept,  "  Swift  to  hear,  slow  to  speak,  slow  to 
wrath,"  because  of  the  injurious  efifect  upon  others 
of  a  failure  to  be  guided  thereby.  Our  circle  of 
relatives  and  friends  know  how  quick  to  advance 
opinions  are  those  who  are  either  ignorant  or 
half-taught.  If  they  discover  that  we  are  im- 
patient of  the  speech  of  others,  are  unwilling  to 
hear  what  may  be  said  upon  the  other  side,  they 
will  perceive  in  us  an  unchristian  lack  of  charity 
for  others  as  well  as  the  absence  of  that  modesty 
which  always  accompanies  wisdom.  If  they  find 
that  we  have  an  off-hand  opinion  upon  all  the 
gravest  questions  which  concern  God  and  man. 
upon  the  most  mysterious  problems  of  the  universe, 
they  will  lose  respect  for  our  utterances,  and  our 
influence  over  them  for  good  will  depart.  If  we 
are  not  slow  to  anger,  it  will  exhibit  such  a  want 
of  self-control  as  will  deprive  us  of  the  power  of 
governing  others. 

SLOW   TO   WRATH. 
Haste  in  thought  or  speech  tends  to  anger,  as 
the  wise  man  knew  when  he  said,  "  Be  not  hasty 


92  Tlic  Gospel  of  Comvion  Seyise. 

in   thy  spirit  to  be  angry"  (Eccl.  7:9).     To  be 
angry  with  the  truth  is  quite  as  much  a  folly  as 
a  sin,  and  so  is  it  to  be  angry  with  those  who 
tell  us  the  truth.     The  king  of  Israel  was  a  con- 
temptible person  when  he  declined  to  send  for 
Macaiah,  and  said  of  him  to  the  kingof  Judah,  "  I 
hate  him,  for  he  doth  not  prophesy  good  of  me,  but 
evil  "  (i  Kings  22  :  8).    Jonah  was  not  a  bad  man, 
he   was  a  prophet  of  the  Lord,  yet  the   Lord's 
merciful  dealings  with   Nineveh  displeased  him, 
because   it    seemed   to   disparage   his    prophetic 
authority.     "  It   displeased    Jonah    exceedingly, 
and  he  was  very  angry  "  (Jonah  4  :  i).     His  anger 
threw  a  cloud  over  all  his  character,  and  over  all 
his  previous  life,  and  over  the  first  missionary  en- 
terprise  undertaken  on    the    planet.     We   leave 
Jonah  with  a  sort  of  contempt,  as  the  curtain 
drops  over  the  picture  of  Jehovah's  remonstrating 
with  him,  and  saying,   "  Doest   thou   well  to  be 
angry  for  the  gourd,"  and  Jonah's  peevish  reply, 
"  I  do  well  to  be  angry,  even  unto  death,"  and 
the  Lord's  grandeur,  His  wide  goodness,  as  He 
says,  "  Thou  hast  spared  the  gourd  for  the  which 
thou  hast  not  laborect,  neither  madest  it  grow, 
which    came   up   in    a   night   and   perished  in  a 
night  ;    and  should    not    I   spare   Nineveh,    that 
great  city  wherein  are  more  than  six  score  thou- 
sand persons  that  cannot  discern  between  their 
right  hand  and  their  left  hand,  and  also  much 
cattle.''"     Let  us  remember  that  anger   against 


The  Gospel  of  Coinuioii  Setisc.  93 

God  is  anger  against  infinite  and  eternal  love,  and 
to  indulge  it  is  to  make  a  copartnership  with 
Satan. 

Moreover,  the  wrath  of  man  does  not  work  out 
the  righteousness  of  God,  either  in  ourselves  or  in 
others.  There  is  no  regulative  force  in  anger  as 
there  is  in  love.  Anger  is  zeal  gone  crazy. 
James  knew  that  his  brethren  were  apt  to  be 
angry  in  theological  and  ecclesiastical  discussions. 
He  warns  them  that  no  good  would  come  of  such 
heat.  They  did  not  all  take  his  advice.  Some 
still  held  that  men  could  be  brought  by  passionate 
appeals  to  see  the  truth  as  they  saw  it.  The 
result  was  the  Jewish  war.  Mahomet  thought 
the  same,  and  so  drew  the  sword.  Christian 
sects  have  pursued  the  same  course  towards  one 
another.  Where  there  have  been  no  unsheathed 
swords  and  no  kindled  fagots  and  no  material 
instruments  of  bodily  torture,  there  has  been 
fierce  wrath  in  controversy  and  terrible  denun- 
ciations and  social  pains  and  penalties  ;  but  never 
yet,  since  the  world  began,  has  the  wrath  of  man 
worked  the  righteousness  of  God. 

Epigrammatic  as  much  of  jAMES's  writings  are, 
there  is  in  them  a  continuity  of  thought  well 
worth  studying.  His  brother,  Jesus,  in  the 
memorable  intercessory  prayer  which  He  of- 
fered to  His  Father,  just  before  His  departure 
from  His  disciples,  indicated  the  instrument  of 
human   sanctification;   "Sanctify   them   through 


94  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

the  truth  ;  Thy  word  is  truth."  (John  17  :  17.) 
When  James  is  instructing  and  guiding  his 
brethren,  he  guards  them  against  allowing  their 
troubles  to  become  temptations,  in  the  sense  of 
seductions  to  evil,  and,  in  case  they  sinned,  he 
warned  against  the  additional  sin  of  laying  their 
wrong-doing  at  the  door  of  God.  That  led  him 
to  a  description  of  the  genesis  of  evil  ;  and  that 
to  a  description  of  the  genesis  of  holiness.  God 
begets  us  unto  righteousness  of  His  own  will 
(masculine),  with  the  word  of  truth  (feminine) 
(v.  18). 

A  PREPARATION  OF  HEART. 
That  the  word  of  God  may  have  full  power 
over  us,  there  must  be  a  preparation  of  heart  for 
its  reception.  We  must  cease  to  do  evil  before 
we  can  learn  to  do  well.  We  must  lay  aside 
everything  which  is  offensive  to  the  purity  of 
God.  By  the  term  "filthiness"  James  seems  to 
wish  to  arouse  a  sense  of  the  loathsomeness  of 
all  sin.  He  does  not  simply  mean  that  we  shall 
lay  aside  those  particular  sins  which  are  disgust- 
ing to  us  ;  but  rather  to  impress  us  that  all  sin 
has  in  it  that  which  makes  it  disgusting  to  God. 
He  may  here  be  supposed  to  be  thinking  of  sins 
of  the  flesh,  the  visible  violations  of  the  moral 
law.  Then  we  are  to  lay  aside  all  "superfluity 
of  naughtiness,"  as  our  Common  Version  has  it. 
That  does  not  mean  that  there  is  a  measure  of  sin 
we  may  retain,  but  we  must  draw  the  line  some- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  95 

where.  The  word  translated  "superfluity"  signi- 
fies "an  outflowing."  The  same  word  occurs  in 
Romans  5:15,  and  2  Cor.  8:2.  It  is  a  New 
Testament  word,  and  indicates  that  which  goes 
out  to  others.  Here  it  means  the  outflowing  of 
malice.  By  the  one  phrase  James  may  be  sup- 
posed to  refer  to  sins  of  the  flesh,  and  by  the 
other  sins  of  the  spirit.  While  indulging  our- 
selves either  in  sins  which  others  cannot  see,  or 
sins  which  show  themselves  in  displays  of  evil 
temper,  we  cannot  profit  by  the  word  of  God. 

Meekness,  as  well  as  purity,  is  essential  to  the 
proper  hearing  of  the  word  of  God.  One  cannot 
in  private  approach  the  study  of  the  word  in  the 
pride  of  opinion  or  of  scholarship,  nor  can  one 
resort  to  the  word  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining 
one's  own  dogma,  and  while  in  that  spirit  find  the 
word  profitable.  You  know  that  this  is  sometimes 
done.  A  man  may  take  down  the  Bible  to  find 
proof  passages,  just  as  a  lawyer  may  search  the 
Reports  of  the  Supreme  Court  to  find  only  that 
which  will  sustain  his  theory  of  the  case  which 
he  is  to  try.  In  such  search  he  throws  aside  what- 
ever does  not  make  for  his  side.  He  is  not  learn- 
ing law,  he  is  hunting  helps.  If  the  Bible  be  so 
studied  it  willbe  improfitable.  We  must  approach 
it  with  the  docility  of  little  children  (Matt.  18  : 
23).  We  must  simply  wish  to  learn  what  is  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit  in  the  word  of  God. 


96  The  Gospel  of  Coniuwn  Sense. 

LISTENING  TO  PREACHING. 

In  that  spirit  men  must  listen  to  preaching. 
They  must  not  love  to  hear  only  that  which  suits 
their  fancies,  their  tastes,  or  their  opinions.  In 
seeking  a  preacher  their  one  inquiry  should  be 
for  the  man  who  can  most  edifyingly  unfold  to 
them  the  word  of  the  Lord.  It  may  hurt,  in  the 
sense  of  giving  pain  ;  but  so  may  a  needed  surgi- 
cal operation.  Growing  angry  with  the  surgeon 
is  not  promotive  of  any  good  to  the  patient.  So, 
all  malice  must  be  put  out  of  the  heart  if  the 
word  of  the  Lord  is  to  have  free  course  and  be 
glorified. 

The  sins  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit  must  be 
put  away,  so  far  as  we  have  power  to  do  it,  that 
the  word  of  God  may  be  ingrafted  in  us.  Wher- 
ever grafting  is  known,  this  is  an  impressive 
phrase.  The  tree  is  cut  open  that  the  new  shoot 
may  be  inserted. 

The  first  lesson  is  a  recurrence  of  what  we  have 
already  been  taught,  namely,  that  that  which  saves 
a  man  "comes  from  the  outside."  No  manner  or 
amount  of  culture  which  a  man  can  give  himself 
will  save  that  man  by  making  him  holy,  any  more 
than  anything  which  the  wild  apple-tree  can  do 
for  itself,  will  turn  it  into  the  producer  of  the  best 
kinds  of  apples.  It  is  always  from  without.  It  is 
not  cultivation  men  need  so  much  as  regenera- 
tion. In  the  spiritual  it  is  as  in  the  material: 
Life  is  always  from  without.  Nothing  has  ever 
been  known  to  besret  itself. 


The   Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  97 

THE  INGRAFTED  WORD. 

The  second  lesson  is  that  our  only  hope  of  sal- 
vation is  the  having  the  word  of  God  ingrafted  in 
our  spirits.  This  makes  the  whole  subject  tre- 
mendously solemn.  The  destruction  of  the  soul 
is  that  which  results  from  the  failure  to  have  the 
word  of  God  so  in  us  that  we  share  its  nature. 

But,  it  is  indispensable  that  we  be  doers  of  the 
word,  not  hearers  only.  The  man  who  supposes 
that  all  that  is  necessary  is  that  he  run  over  a 
passage  of  Holy  Scripture  before  leaving  his  bed- 
chamber, and  another  at  family  prayer,  and  give 
respectful  attention  to  his  clergyman  in  syna- 
gogue or  church,  is  greatly  mistaken.  He  must 
work  out  in  life  what  he  reads  or  hears  from  the 
Holy  Scripture,  as  the  sap  of  a  tree  works  out 
fruit  on  the  stem  which  is  grafted  thereon.  It  is 
the  failure  to  do  this  which  has  so  greatly  re- 
tarded our  religious  life.  Men  have  heard  the 
word  with  their  outward  ears,  and  have  gone  out 
of  the  church  thinking  that  the  sermon  was  done, 
whereas  it  had  not  begun  in  their  practice,  not 
even  in  their  hearts. 

No  ;  the  moment  I  have  learned  anything  from 
the  word  I  must  make  a  strenuous  effort  to  re- 
produce //  in  my  life.  Then,  the  next  thing 
learned  ;  then,  the  rest;  and  so  on,  until  my  life 
bean  incarnation  of  the  Bible.  If  each  hearer  did 
this  how  powerful  our  holy  faith  would  be  among 
men  !     Compared    with    this  what  is  success  in 


y 


98  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

controversy,  although  I  could  silence  every  theo- 
logical opponent  ?  What  Biblical  learning;,  al- 
though I  could  repeat  every  verse  of  the  Bible 
in  every  tongue  ever  spoken  among  men  ? 
Neither  of  these  would  save  me  ;  but  the  truth, 
animated  unto  fruitage  by  my  spiritual  vitality, 
would  make  me  a  tree  worth  a  place  in  God's  or- 
chard. What  kind  of  people  are  those  who  hear 
but  fail  to  practise  ?  They  are  like  a  man  who 
sees  his  face  in  a  mirror,  perhaps  while  shaving, 
and  after  he  has  gone,  cannot  reproduce  to  his 
memory  any  accurate  picture  of  the  countenance 
which  he  had  seen.  So,  the  hearers  who  are 
non-doers  carry  away  a  vague  idea  of  their  spirit- 
ual character.  It  does  them  no  good.  It  is  this 
vagueness  which  is  so  injurious  to  the  mass  of 
gospel  hearers.  The  preacher  who  can  print 
something  distinct  upon  the  minds  of  his  people 
can  be  of  real  service  to  them.  They  must  be 
arrested,  shaken,  roused,  stimulated,  spurred, 
stung,  until  they  feel  the  indispensableness  of 
turning  from  less  important  things  to  give  them- 
selves to  the  study  of  the  word  of  God. 
THE  LAW  OF  LIBERTY. 
James  paints  a  companion  picture  to  that  of  the 
man  who  glances  at  a  mirror.  It  is  that  of  a  man 
who  bends  himself  to — who  becomes  absorbed 
in — the  law,  the  completed  law,  the  system  of 
religion  which  began  with  Abraham  and  was 
completed  by  Jesus.  The  incomplete  law  set  forth 


The  Gospel  of  Coimnon  Sense.  99 

by  Moses,  can  only  show  him  just  what  he  is,  as 
a  mirror  shows  a  man  his  face.  Even  if  a  man  bow 
himself  to  that,  and  become  absorbed  in  that,  it 
only  shows  how  bad  he  is,  and  even  the  most 
vigorous  effort  to  keep  that  law  only  more  and 
more  demonstrates  to  him  what  a  slave  he  is  to 
his  sinfulness.  But,  the  law  which  is  completed 
in  Jesus  is  the  law  o  liberty  ;  that  law  which  is 
the  Gospel  of  redemption  frees  a  man  from  the 
guilt  of  his  committed  sins  and  from  the  power 
of  his  native  sinfulness. 

But,  he  must  be  constantly  obedient  thereto. 
It  is  not  a  mere  passing  glance  that  is  required. 
He  must  inspect  it  closely,  and  meditate  upon  it 
deeply,  and  obey  it  constantly.  Jesus  said  (John 
14  :  21),  "  He  that  hath  My  commandments  and 
kecpcth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  Me  ;  and  he  that 
loveth  Me  shall  be  loved  of  My  Father,  and  I  will 
love  him,  and  will  manifest  Myself  to  him  "  ;  and 
(John  18:31)  "if  the  Son  shall  make  you  free, 
ye  shall  be  free  indeed."  It  was  the  mistake  of 
the  Jew  of  James's  day  that  he  believed  a 
knowledge  of  the  law  was  saving.  Against  this 
error  Paul  teaches  when  he  says  (Romans  i  :  13),  ^ 
**  For  not  the  hearers  of  the  law  are  righteous 
before  God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  ac- 
counted righteous."  And  so  Jesus  said  of  those 
who  abode  in  Him  and  in  whom  His  words 
abode,  that  they  should  glorify  His  Father,  and 
bear  much  fruit,  and  so  be  His  disciples  (John  15). 


100  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Such  a  man  shall  be  blessed  "in  his  doing."  Re-  ,. 
mark  that  the  reward  of  happiness  is  not  to  come 
to  him  for  his  deed,  and  is  not  in  the  future.  The 
blessedness  is  in  the  very  act.  We  need  not  seek 
blessedness  ;  we  must  practise  obedience,  and 
then  the  blessedness  comes  of  itself.  Who  that 
has  set  himself  to  doing  all  that  the  Lord  com- 
mands has  not  found  that  it  made  life,  even  a  life 
of  self-sacrifice,  more  delicious  than  all  carnal  de- 
light .? 

A  MISTAKE  AS  TO  RELIGION. 

James  then  points  out  to  his  Jewish-Christian 
brethren  a  distinction  between  false  and  true  re- 
ligion, which  is  just  as  good  for  our  age  as  for  his. 
'■^ If  among  yoii  any  man  fancies  Jiimsclf  religions, 
not  leading  his  tongue  with  a  bridle,  but  cheating 
his  oivn  heart,  this  man' s  religion  is  nseless^ 

Whether  there  was  some  special  reason  why 
James  should  call  the  attention  of  his  Hebrew- 
Christian  brethren  to  sins  of  the  tongue  we  do  not 
know ;  but  we  do  know  that  if  ever  a  generation 
needed  repeated  and  pungent  reminders  on  this 
subject,  ours  is  that  generation.  Perhaps,  also,  he 
felt  as  if  some  might  restrict  what  he  had  just  said 
to  acts,  and  he  desired  to  let  them  know  that  they 
must  include  words  as  well.  Moreover,  the  Jews 
in  the  time  of  Christ  were  misled  by  the  belief  i/' 
that  professions  were  sufificient,  so  that  if  any  man 
read  and  taught  the  law,  especially  if  he  taught  it, 
he  would  inevitably  be  saved,  whatever  might  be 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  loi 

the  moral  character  of  his  hfe.  James's  brother 
Jesus  found  that  sentiment  so  powerful  among  His 
disciples,  that  He  was  compelled  to  warn  them  that 
it  was  not  those  who  made  loud  professions  that 
were  to  be  saved.  Almost  the  last  thing  He  said 
in  His  memorable  discourse  called  the  "  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,"  was  to  lift  a  warning  against  that 
form  of  self-deception  which  was  founded  on  mere 
profession.  "  Not  every  one  that  saitJi  unto  Me 
'Lord,  Lord,'  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  My  Father 
in  heaven"  (Matt.  7:  21).  And  the  words  which 
next  follow  are  tremendous:  ''Many  will  say  to  Me 
in  that  day,  'Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied 
in  Thy  name  ?  and  in  Thy  name  have  cast  out 
devils  ?  and  in  Thy  name  done  many  wonderful 
works?'  And  then  will  I  profess  to  them,  I  never 
knew  you;  depart  from  Me  ye  that  work  iniquity." 
We  must  not  be  deceived  by  our  own  profes- 
sions. If  any  member  of  our  body  be  an  instru- 
ment of  sin  it  shows  that  our  hearts  are  still  uncon- 
quered  by  the  grace  of  God.  And  no  member 
more  quickly  shows  this  than  the  tongue.  And 
few  things  are  more  injurious  than  an  unbridled 
tongue.  A  fool's  tongue  wanders  everywhere,  into 
fields  lawful  and  unlawful.  Men  have  no  right  to 
talk  heedlessly.  It  is  no  excuse  that  a  speaker 
did  not  mean  to  do  wrong,  or  that  he  "  meant 
nothing  by  it."  We  are  bound  to  mean  some- 
thing every  time  we  speak,  and  we  are  bound  to 


I02  TJlc  Gospel  of  Common  S^cnse. 

mean  something  good;  the  tongue  must  have  on 
the  bridle  of  thought,  and  that  must  be  held  by 
the  reason,  which  is  the  right  hand  of  religion.  It 
is  of  those  words  which  were  not  intended  by  the 
speaker  to  be  profitable,  words  uttered  when  he 
"meant  nothing,"  that  Jesus  said  :  "I  say  unto  you 
that  every  idle  word  that  men  shall  speak,  they 
shall  give  account  thereof  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment "  (Matt.  12  :  36) 

It  may  be  a  question  which  does  most  harm,  a 
false  tongue  or  an  unbridled  tongue.  In  the  case 
of  the  former,  it  may  so  soon  be  discovered  that 
it  is  the  instrument  of  a  liar  that  all  men  can 
guard  themselves  against  it  ;  but  the  unbridled 
tongue  may  belong  to  a  man  who  has  some 
pleasing  qualities,  or  to  a  woman  who  but  for  her 
wild  tongue  would  be  a  charming  person,  and  so 
people  are  thrown  off  their  guard,  and  the  secret 
poison  of  the  bitter  and  bad  word  may  work  dis- 
astrously. 

The  man  who  professes  to  be  a  believer  and 
possesses  an  unbridled  tongue,  is  utterly  useless 
to  the  cause  of  all  true  religion.  He  may  be  very 
punctual  in  attendance  upon  all  forms  of  public 
worship  ;  he  may  even  take  part  in  them,  ex- 
hibiting great  gifts  in  prayer  and  great  zeal  for 
religion  ;  he  may  be  a  very  genial  and  com- 
panionable person,  witty  and  bright  ;  he  may 
seem  to  take  great  interest  in  others,  and  give 
of  his  own  income  or  substance  to  promote  what 


The  Gospel  of  Comnioii  Sense.  103 

are  considered  the  interests  of  religion  ;  all  that 
and  much  more  may  he  do  ;  with  the  industry  of 
a  gambler  striving  to  cheat  from  himself  the  ver- 
dict that  he  is  a  truly  religious  man  ;  and  yet  all 
the  while  that  man's  religion  may  be  as  empty  as 
a  bubble,  vain  and  unprofitable  to  others  and  un- 
helpful to  himself ;  idle,  foolish,  useless,  trifling, 
thoughtless,  wanton,  irreverent,  profane,  for  the 
word  translated  "idle"  means  all  these  things. 
RELIGION   IS   IN   CHARACTER. 

James  teaches  us  that  the  proof  of  religion  is 
not  in  mere  profession,  but  in  character,  and 
therefore  a  man  cannot  by  words  prove  to  him- 
self, or  to  his  fellow-man,  that  he  is  religious  ;  the 
proof  is  in  his  actions.  His  brother  Jesus  had 
said,  "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them  "  (Matt. 
7  :  20). 

"  Religion,  clear  and  spotless,  toiuard  God,  even 
the  Father,  is  this  :  to  keep  guardianship  over  or- 
phans and  widozvs  in  their  affliction,  to  keep  one's  self 
stainless  from  the  zvorld''  (v.  27). 

It  is  necessary  to  notice  that  the  writer  is  not 
giving  us  a  definition  of  religion,  but  a  descrip- 
tion ;  a  description  of  its  character  by  showing 
something  which  it  will  do  outwardly,  something 
it  will  produce  which  we  shall  be  able  to  see.  It 
were  a  great  mistake  to  consider  this  an  authori- 
tative, scientific  definition  of  religion.  The  writer 
had  been  pointing  out  the  marks  of  a  useless  re- 
ligion.    He  now  indicates  the  characteristics  of 


I04  The  Gospel  of  Covimon  Sense. 

any  religion  which  is  pure  and  spotless.  Indeed, 
it  might  be  written  ''any  religion,"  which  God 
sees  to  be  pure  and  spotless,  will  have  the  char- 
acteristics of  outward  beneficence  and  inward 
purity. 

By  a  beautiful  figure,  he  likens  religion  to  a 
gem,  a  precious  stone,  the  value  of  which  depends 
upon  the  two  qualities  of  (i)  being  clear  through 
and  through,  without  any  inner  malformation,  and 
(2)  being  free  from  all  stain  or  flaw  on  the  out- 
side. Positively,  and  as  to  its  interior,  it  is  clear 
and  unclouded  ;  negatively,  and  as  to  its  exterior, 
it  is  spotless  and  flawless.  Any  religion  which 
has  these  qualities  is  a  true  religion,  and  will 
produce  purity  and  usefulness  ;  and,  whatever 
its  pretensions,  a  religion  destitute  of  these,  is 
worthless. 

Let  us  notice  how  James  turns  this  subject  God- 
ward,  whereas  the  general  disposition  is  to  turn 
it  manward.  It  is  not  of  such  importance  to  me 
that  men  consider  me  religious  ;  they  may  be 
mistaken.  Nor,  that  I  consider  myself  religious  ; 
I  may  be  mistaken,  may  even  deceive  myself. 
But  God  cannot  be  mistaken  or  deceived.  That 
religion  which,  in  His  judgment,  is  clear  and 
spotless,  which  presents  no  cloudiness  and  no  flaw 
to  His  inspection,  is  the  religion  that  is  worth 
thinking  about.  Indeed,  the  phrase  which  v/e 
have  translated  "toward  God,"  and  which  the 
Common  Version  gives  "before  God,"  strictly 
means  "  in  the  judgment  of  God." 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  105 

A  LIFE  OF  BENEFICENCE. 
I  A  truly  religious  life  is  a  life  of  beneficence.  It 
does  not  consist  alone  in  creeds  and  opinions, 
although  it  could  not  exist  without  them.  It  is 
built  on  a  religion  which  looks  outward  more  than 
inward.  The  subject  thereof  is  careful  for  the 
rights  and  welfare  of  others,  not  spending  his 
whole  time  and  force  on  himself  in  morbid  study 
of  his  interior  spiritual  conditions  and  experiences. 
It  is  an  indication  that  the  man  is  a  child  of  God 
when  he  bears  the  family  likeness.  The  children 
are  like  the  Father,  and  much  the  larger  part  of 
the  revelation  which  God  makes  of  Himself  is  not 
what  God  thinks  of  Himself  or  does  for  Himself, 
but  what  He  thinks  of  others  and  does  for  others. 
He  represents  Himself  as  beginning  farthest  off 
from  Himself,  and  taking  first  under  His  special 
divine  care  those  who  are  most  helpless  and  who 
give  least  promise  of  making  any  return  ;  little 
children  whose  fathers  have  died  and  left  them 
without  means,  and  their  mothers,  who  are  all 
the  worse  off  because  they  have  these  little  chil- 
dren to  provide  for.  He  actually  prides  Himself 
on  being  their  God.  "  A  father  of  the  fatherless 
and  a  judge  of  the  widows  is  God  in  His  holy 
habitation"  (Ps.  68  :  5). 

The  ethical  principle  laid  down  is  that  the  mai: 
who  has  the  most  need  of  you  has  the  greatest 
claim  upon  you. 


lo6  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Then  we  have  directions  for  the  manner  of  benef- 
icence. True  religion  requires  the  personal  pres- 
ence of  the  man  where  his  benevolence  is  to  do 
good.  The  tendency  of  our  age  is  to  help  others 
by  proxy,  through  associations  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  orphanages,  widows'  homes.  Sisters  of 
the  Stranger,  and  many  other  like  praiseworthy 
institutions.  There  certainly  is  no  harm  in  work- 
ing through  all  these  instrumentalities  ;  indeed, 
they  have  claims  upon  us  ;  but  no  man  must  con- 
tent himself  with  only  such  working.  He  must 
'"'  inspect,  he  must  visit,  and  he  must  make  per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  the  widow  and  the  fath- 
erless. 

(i)  This  is  necessary  for  his  own  development. 
The  Captain  of  our  salvation  might  have  re- 
mained seated  on  His  throne  and  have  com- 
manded the  forces  of  good  to  charge  against  the 
forces  of  evil.  But  He  did  no  such  thing.  He 
came  down  into  the  thick  of  the  fight,  and  wore 
garments  rolled  in  blood,  and  took  scars  of  human 
battle  on  His  person  to  be  seen  forev^er  in  heaven 
as  fadeless  marks  of  His  immortal  love.  The 
Captain  of  our  salvation  became  '  perfect  through 
suffering." 

(2)  It  is  necessary  for  those  who  are  helped. 
How  is  the  widow  to  feel  that  you  stand  to 
represent  the  love  of  her  departed  husband  if  she 
never  sees  you  ?  How  is  the  orphan  to  have  any 
idea  of  fatherhood  if  he  never  sees  any  one  who 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  107 

represents  that  relation  to  him  ?  His  own  father 
is  dead  ;  if  you  send  him  only  money  and  clothes 
and  kind  words,  is  that  all  there  is  of  fatherhood  ? 
Remember  that  children  climb  to  the  idea  of 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  on  their  experience  of 
human  fatherhood.  To  a  child  who  never  knew 
its  earthly  parents  the  worst  of  orphanage  is  that 
it  cuts  him  off  from  the  human  representation  of 
the  divine  Fatherhood.  To  such  we  must  strive 
to  apply  that  gracious  lack.  It  cannot  be  done 
without  our  personal  intercourse  with  the  child. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  Scriptures  do 
not  give  a  blessing  to  the  man  who  distributes 
alms,  gives  food  and  clothes  and  money.  This 
he  may  do,  as  Paul  points  out,  without  a  par- 
ticle of  charity.  And  it  comes  to  nothing. 
"  Blessed  is  he  that  considercth  the  poor  "  is  the 
Scriptural  benediction  (Ps.  41  :  i).  And  the  word 
in  this  place  means  the  application  of  the  mind 
so  as  to  make  wise  conclusions  in  regard  to  the 
matter  in  hand.  It  occurs  only  in  Job  24:27, 
Psalm  41  :  I,  Psalm  64:9,  Proverbs  21  :  12,  and 
Daniel  7 : 8,  and  always  with  this  sense. 

Lecky  ("  History  of  European  Morals,"  II.  98) 
well  says  that  "the  rich  man,  prodigal  of  money, 
which  to  him  is  of  little  value,  but  altogether  in- 
capable of  devoting  any  personal  attention  to  the 
object  of  his  alms,  often  injures  society  by  his 
donations  ;  but  this  is  rarely  the  case  with  that 
far  nobler  charity  which  makes  men  familiar  with 


lo8  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

the  haunts  of  wretchedness,  and  follows  the  ob- 
ject of  his  care  through  all  the  phases  of  his  life." 
A  LIFE  OF  PURITY. 

Not  less  necessary  than  outward  beneficence  is 
inward  purity.  Indeed,  that  is  the  spring  of  all 
that  is  good  in  the  outward  life,  and  if  not  men- 
tioned first,  it  must  be  presupposed.  And  then 
it  would  occur  to  the  mind  of  the  writer  that 
there  was  a  danger  to  purity  of  character  in  that 
very  activity  of  beneficence  which  he  had  stated 
as  one  of  the  characteristics  of  any  religion  ac- 
ceptable to  God.  The  phrase  "  the  world  "  im- 
plied to  James,  as  it  did  to  the  other  early  Chris- 
tians, not  the  orderly  universe  which  the  Greek 
word  was  originally  used  to  designate,  nor  its 
secondary  meaning  of  human  society,  but  in  a 
special  sense,  perhaps  it  should  be  called  a  New 
Testament  sense,  Jiuman  society  in  its  ungodly 
bias.  Dean  Alford  seems  to  give  us  its  real 
meaning.  "  The  whole  earthly  creation,  sepa- 
rated from  God  and  lying  in  sin,  which,  whether 
as  consisting  in  the  men  who  serve  it,  or  the  en- 
ticements which  it  holds  out  to  evil  lust,  is  to 
Christians  a  source  of  continual  defilement." 
From  all  the  sin  that  was  in  the  Jewish  world, 
the  Hebrew-Christian  world,  the  Roman  world, 
James  would  have  his  brethren  saved. 

Times  change.  Manners  change.  Sin  puts  on 
different  guises  and  disguises.  We  cannot  be 
separated  from  the  human  society  which  we  are 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  109 

to  help.  There  is  as  much  to  soil  the  soul  in  the 
society  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  London  and 
New  York  as  there  was  in  the  first  century  in 
Rome  and  Corinth.  We  must  keep  ourselves 
"  unspotted  from  the  world  "  around  us,  the  world 
which  separates  itself  from  God. 

So,  while  not  defining  religion,  JamES  does  de- 
scribe its  characteristics,  such  characteristics  as 
are  indispensable  for  anything  that  God  would 
call  religion,  namely,  inward  purity  and  outward 
beneficence. 


V. 

The  Temptation  to  Partiality. 

CHAPTER   II.,    I-I3. 
PARTIALITY  FOR  THE  RICH. 

HAVING  warned  his  brethren,  first,  against 
the  temptation  to  charge  their  sins  to 
God,  and,  secondly,  against  the  tempta- 
tion to  fanaticism,  James,  thirdly,  warns  them 
against  the  temptation  to  partiality  founded  on 
national  and  inherited  prejudice  and  on  the  ap- 
peals which  wealth  makes  to  the  imagination. 

These  are  his  words  in  chapter  11:  1-13  :  ''My 
brethren,  do  not  in  personal  partialities  hold  the 
faith  of  our  Lord,  the  fesus  Christ  of  Glory.  For 
if  there  come  into  your  assembly  a  fnan  be- gold- 
ringed,  in  brilliantly-colored  clothing,  and  there 
come  in  a  poor  person  in  sordid  clotJiing,  and  you 
have  regard  to  him  wearing  the  brilliant-colored 
clotJiing,  and  say  to  Jiim  'Sit  thou  thus,  beautifully,'' 
and  say  to  the  poor  person  'Stand  thou  there, ^  or 
'Mt  thou  thus,  by  my  footstool,'  do  you  not  both 
make  distinctions  among  yourselves  ajid  become 
judges  with  evil  thoughts?  Hear,  brethreji  mine, 
beloved;  has  not  God  chosen  the  poor  of  the  world, 
who  are  rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of  that  kingdom 
zvhich  He  has  proclaimed  for  those  zvho  love  Him  ? 


The  Gospel  of  Comino7i  Sense.  1 1 1 

But  ye  have  dishonored  the  poor.  Do  not  the  rich 
oppress  you  ?  Are  they  not  those  who  drag  you  to 
the  cotirts  /  Are  they  not  those  ivho  blaspheme  that 
beaut  if  1(1  name  zvJiicJi  %vas  called  upon  yon  ?  " 

Our  author  seems  to  have  made  himself  well 
acquainted  with  the  different  forms  of  temptation 
which  were  likely  to  assail  his  beloved  Hebrew- 
Christian  brethren  scattered  abroad  among  the 
Gentiles,  endeavoring  to  maintain  a  spiritual 
Christianity  under  the  restraints  of  old  inherited 
prejudices.  He  had  somehow  learned  that  in 
their  church  life  there  had  appeared  a  partiality 
to  persons,  which,  whether  based  on  national  pre- 
judice or  social  distinctions,  was  not  simply  un- 
charitable, but  very  unjust,  and  very  destructive  of 
the  peace  of  the  Church  as  well  as  of  the  religious 
life  of  the  individual  believer. 

His  description  is  very  picturesque,  whether  we 
fancy  the  case  described  as  being  in  the  judicial 
assembly,  or  in  the  general  congregation  for  wor- 
ship, or  the  Christian  community  as  distinguished 
from  Judaism  and  paganism.  Such  conduct  was 
likely  to  occur,  and  in  any  case  was  detrimental  to 
their  Christianity  because  it  was  wrong.  What- 
ever is  wrong  is  not  only  impolitic  but  unchristian. 
The  parties,  rich  and  poor,  may  be  of  those  who 
are  differenced  only  in  their  estates.  It  might  be 
a  rich  Jew  and  a  poor  Jew;  or  a  rich  Gentile  and 
a  poor  Gentile  but  the  probability  would  be  that 
the  rich  man  was  the  Jew  and  the  poor  man  the 


1 1 2  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Gentile,  so  that  here  the  old  and  strong  national 
bias  would  play  upon  their  decisions  and  their  con- 
duct. 

The  rich  man  is  set  before  us  strikingly.  He 
has  splendid  dress.  It  is  brilliantly  colored,  and 
attracts  immediate  attention  to  him.  He  is  not 
merely  elegantly  attired  ;  he  is  gorgeous  in  his 
appearance;  not  only  does  he  wear  rings,  such  and 
as  many  as  were  customary,  but  he  is  loaded  with 
rings.  In  our  day,  a  gentleman  may  wear  his 
wedding  ring  or  his  seal  ring,  but  if  we  should  see 
a  man  with  four  rings  on  each  finger  of  both 
hands,  we  should  regard  him  as  over-dressed.  If 
each  ring  were  costly,  so  that  the  whole  set  should 
represent  a  fortune,  and  we  knew  that  the  pos- 
sessor could  afford  it,  we  should  still  regard  a 
man  wearing  forty  rings  as  a  vulgar  person.  The 
word  which  our  Common  Version  renders  "with 
a  gold  ring"  occurs  in  this  place  and  probably 
nowhere  else,  either  in  New  Testament  or  classic 
Greek.  It  has  been  supposed  to  have  been 
coined  by  jAMES,  but  that  is  not  certain.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  (by  Bishop  Bloomfield)  that  it  is 
formed  analogically,  and  may  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  many  thousands  of  words  of  the  common 
dialect  not  preserved  in  such  remains  of  anti- 
quity as  are  in  our  hands.  In  the  rendering  "  be- 
gold-ringed,"  we  have  endeavored  to  reproduce 
the  effect  of  the  Greek  word  the  use  of  which, 
by  James,  seems  to  have  been  intended  to  throw 
contempt  upon  the  "  dude"  of  his  time. 


The  Gospel  of  Conunon  Sense.  1 1 3 

GOING   TO   COURT. 

The  power  of  wealth,  or  the  display  thereof, 
over  the  imagination  has  always  been  well 
known.  It  had  been  shown  in  the  first  churches 
of  the  first  century,  it  is  possible,  even  in  their 
councils  for  discipline.  Two  parties  have  some 
difficulty.  They  cannot  have  recourse  to  a 
pagan  court — that  was  not  allowed  (i  Cor.  6  :  i). 
They  take  it  to  the  church.  But  one  is  rich  and 
the  other  poor.  When  they  enter,  before  the 
trial  begins,  there  is  a  prejudgment.  Some  rep- 
resentative person  immediately  notices  the  en- 
trance of  the  party  "wearing  the  gay  clothing." 
It  is  not  simply  the  texture  and  cut  of  the  ma- 
terials ;  it  is  the  mode  in  which  it  is  carried  on 
the  person.  [At  first  I  translated  the  phrase, 
"  you  have  recourse  to  him  flaunting  the  brill- 
iantly colored  clothing."  The  word  hardly 
bears  so  strong  a  meannig  as  "  flaunt,"  and  yet  it 
does  signify  something  more  than  mere  having 
one's  clothing  upon  one.]  It  is  that  indescriba- 
ble something  brought  into  the  person's  carriage 
by  the  consciousness  of  being  in  richer  raiment 
than  those  about  him. 

At  the  same  moment  enters  his  brother,  his 
Christian  brother,  the  other  party  to  the  suit.  He 
is  poor  ;  poor  in  spirit,  as  well  as  poor  in  clothes. 
He  is  not  so  well  known  to  his  brethren  as  "  the 
party  of  the  first  part."  He  is  a  meek  man  and 
does  not  push  his  way  forward. 


114  '^^^^  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Let  us  look  in  and  see  what  occurs. 

Immediately  some  attentive  member  of  the 
court  obsequiously  approaches  the  brilliant  liti- 
gant, described  by  James  as  the  "  chrysodacty- 
lic  party  "  [a  man  be-gold-ringed]  and  brings  him 
to  the  best  chair  in  the  room,  and  says  "  Seat 
yourself;  here;  that's  nice."  Then  he,  or  some 
other  person,  says  to  the  poor  party,  "  Stand  you 
there."  And  there  is  a  very  great  difference  be- 
tween the  "  here  "  and  the  "  there,"  perhaps  so 
great  that  he  who  had  spoken  both  words  feels 
some  compunction,  and  mitigates  the  treatment 
by  informing  the  poor  brother  that,  if  he  prefer 
sitting  to  standing,  he  may  come  and  sit  down 
on  his  footstool  !  Do  not  the  brother  who  stands 
and  the  brother  in  the  good  seat  know  what 
the  verdict  will  be .''  Is  there  any  use  of  a 
trial  after  this  }  Would  not  that  be  disgraceful 
behavior  in  a  pagan  court .''  How  much  more  in 
a  Christian  assembly  met  for  judicial  purposes  ! 
GOING  TO   CHURCH. 

But  the  warning  must  not  be  confined  to  be- 
havior in  church  courts,  if  there  should  be  such 
things.  It  is  still  more  applicable  to  assemblies 
for  public  worship.  Indeed,  in  the  opinion  of 
some,  the  passage  we  are  considering  refers  alto- 
gether to  the  congregation  assembled  for  worship. 

No  one  could  suspect  this  most  sensible  writer 
of  inculcating  any  sentiment  at  variance  with  the 
duty  of  giving  "  honor  to  whom  honor  is  due." 


The  Gospel  of  Coinvion  Sense.  1 1 5 

Office  should  command  respect  ;  wealth  is  not  to 
be  despised  ;  culture  is  to  be  desired.  The 
warning  is  against  carrying  caste  into  religious 
circles,  and  especially  into  religious  worship.  The 
universal  equality  of  man  before  man  is  a  Utopian 
political  dream.  Men  are  not  born  all  equal,  as 
among  themselves.  They  are  on  an  equality  only 
before  the  law  and  before  God. 

It  is  this  broad  fact,  which  should  be  univer- 
sally acknowledged  and  acted  upon,  which  makes 
caste  in  church  such  a  pernicious  thing,  especially 
when  that  caste  is  founded  on  mere  distinctions 
of  wealth.  If  wealth  were  always  the  accompani- 
ment of  high  character,  or  poverty  the  unfailing 
mark  of  moral  unworth,  then  the  man  who  could 
afford  to  be  dressed  elegantly  every  day,  should 
be  escorted  to  the  highest  seat  in  the  synagogue, 
and  the  poor  man  should  be  content  to  sit  on  any 
footstool.  But  nothing  is  more  generally  known 
than  that  there  is  no  connection  between  the  ex- 
ternal estate  and  the  inner  character.  So  far  is 
the  reality  from  any  such  connection  that  we 
have  all  been  acquainted  with  these  several  cases: 
(i)  that  of  a  really  good  man  who,  at  one  period 
of  his  life,  was  very  poor  and  at  another  very  rich, 
but  always  good;  (2)  that  of  another  man  who  had 
had  the  same  change  in  fortune,  and  who  wa3 
always  very  bad  and  very  mean  ;  (3)  that  of  a 
man  who  was  good  when  he  was  poor  and  bad 
when  he  was  rich,  and  (4)  that  of  a  man  who  was 
good  when  he  was  rich,  and  bad  when  he  was  poor. 


Ii6  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

In  a  country  like  ours,  where  fortunes  are  made 
and  lost  in  a  day,  how  little  claim  upon  our  esteem 
has  any  man  merely  for  his  estate.  So  often  now 
is  that  remark  made,  so  often  are  seen  the  bas- 
est of  men  and  women  suddenly  blazing  in  dia- 
monds, that  among  thoughtful  people,  the  rich, 
the  good  rich,  the  really  humble,  true,  holy,  rich 
people  are  scarcely  secured  from  the  contem.pt 
which  overlooks  their  worth  in  despising  their 
wealth.  This  is  a  mistake  on  the  other  side. 
But  it  is  not  so  often  made  as  that  to  which 
James  calls  the  attention  of  his  brethren. 

The  lesson  to  us,  in  our  age,  is  to  exclude  caste 
from  churches,  in  public  worship  if  not  elsewhere. 
Whatever  makes  a  poor  man  or  poor  woman  feel 
unwelcome  in  a  church  is  a  wrong  against  Chris- 
tian charity.  If  it  be  in  the  church  building,  or  in 
the  behavior  of  the  ushers  or  in  the  arrangement 
of  the  pews,  or  in  the  dress  of  the  worshippers,  it  is 
the  very  thing  against  which  the  principle  set  forth 
by  James  is  levelled.  If  there  be  any  seats  better 
than  other  seats  they  should  be  open  equally  to 
all  in  turn  ;  if  there  be  inferior  seats  they  should 
be  voluntarily  occupied  by  all  in  turn.  If  ushers 
are  to  make  any  difference  in  escorting  worship- 
pers to  seats  that  difference  should  be  made  in 
favor  of  those  who  have  the  poorest  appearance, 
or  are  known  to  be  poor — not  because  they  are 
poor,  but  because  they  are  apt  to  be  more  sensi- 
tive, knowing  the  deference  which  mere  world- 
liners  show  to  mere  wealth. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  1 1 7 

Perhaps,  in  the  modern  church  worship,  the 
greatest  discouragement  which  the  poor  feel,  is  in 
the  dress  which  their  rich  brethren  and  sisters 
are  accustomed  to  exhibit  in  the  house  of  God. 
It  is  a  shame  to  their  poor  apparel.  It  ought  to 
be  a  shame  to  any  well-to-do  Christian  woman 
when  she  wears  her  gayest  and  newest  costly 
clothing  to  public  worship,  and  appears  with  dia- 
monds and  other  very  valuable  and  conspicuous 
ornaments  before  the  altars  of  her  God.  Cannot 
the  Christian  women  of  this  age  at  length  have 
courage  to  refuse  to  continue  to  be  Sunday 
advertisements  of  modistes  and  milliners .''  A 
lady  in  New  York,  whose  pew  was  on  one  of  the 
wall  sides  of  the  church,  and  who  consequently 
had  the  congregation  all  on  one  side  of  her,  sug- 
gested to  her  milliner  that  she  put  a  certain  bow 
on  the  "  congregation  side  "  of  her  bonnet  !  What 
a  revelation  was  that  !  And  was  it  solitary .''  Is 
not  the  preparation  of  many  a  worshipper  made 
on  tJic  congregation  side?  And  is  not  the  House 
of  the  Lord  thus  turned  into  a  show-room,  in 
which  those  who  have  no  special  dry-goods  to 
exhibit  are  neither  welcome  nor  at  home  } 
EVIL   OF   PARTIALITY. 

See  the  evil  of  this  partiality.  In  those  who 
indulge  it,  it  works  a  confusion  of  intellectual 
ideas  and  moral  sentiments.  It  blunts  their  judg- 
ment. They  form  decisions  on  wrong  grounds. 
They  do   injustice   to   others.     They   make    un- 


Ii8  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

needed  and  hurtful  distinctions  between  brethren. 
They  create  schisms  in  the  body  of  Christ.  No 
good  is  done,  and  much  evil. 

ON   THE   SIDE   OF   THE   POOR. 

The  unreasonableness  and  injustice  of  this  are 
next  shown.  With  a  tender,  imploring  tone, 
James  solicits  the  attention  of  his  readers. 
"  Hear,  brethren  mine." 

(i)  Then  he  points  out  to  them  that  those 
Christians  whom  they  had  despised  were  the 
favorites  of  heaven.  If  God  is  wise  in  His  choice, 
are  you  not  foolish  in  your  discrimination  }  When 
He  has  made  choice  of  men  for  any  special  and 
grand  work  in  the  Church,  He  has  ordinarily 
chosen  those  who  were  poor,  as  the  world  ranks 
poverty.  They  had  neither  much  land  nor  much 
money.  They  neither  had  great  civil  rank  or 
high  social  position.  The  men  that  have  sung 
the  songs  which  are  to  be  the  solace  of  the  sor- 
rowful and  the  stimulant  of  the  faithful,  have  been 
taken  from  such  low  places  as  that  from  which 
David  ascended  to  the  throne.  The  men  who 
were  to  propagate  a  fresh  faith  by  preaching  a 
new  evangel,  have  been  the  men  like  those  whom 
the  Son  of  God  found  washing  fishermen's  nets  on 
a  little  lake  in  an  obscure  corner  of  the  planet. 
The  men  who  have  reformed  an  apostate  Church, 
have  been  men  who  were  born  in  the  hut  of  the 
poor  miner,  like  Martin  Luther.  When  the  Son 
of  God,  Himself  the  Lord  of  glory,  comes  to  wear 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  1 1 9 

human  flesh,  and  so  make  a  perpetual  alliance 
with  our  humanity,  He  does  not  honor  the 
daughter  of  a  king  or  Croesus  by  becoming  her 
babe,  but  condescends  to  be  born  of  a  virgin  who 
has  no  special  distinction,  no  high  place,  and  no 
material  possessions.  And  among  His  followers, 
down  to  the  day  of  James,  down  to  our  day,  not 
so  many  rich  have  been  the  servants  of  the  Lord  ; 
the  poor  have  always  been  very  greatly  in  the 
majority.  As  one  has  said,  "  God  has  more  rent 
and  better  paid  Him  from  a  smoky  cottage  than 
from  many  stately  palaces,  where  men  wallow  in 
wealth,  and  forget  God."  Surely,  God's  favorites 
generally  are  not  rich. 

(2)  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  there  are  different 
kinds  of  riches.  What  is  wealth?  Is  it  always 
money  ?  What  is  the  worth  of  money  beyond  its 
purchasing  power?  A  dollar  or  a  pound  can  pur- 
chase more  at  one  time  than  at  another,  in  one 
place  than  in  another.  If  I  have  thousands  of 
dollars  or  of  pounds  in  the  middle  of  the  desert, 
where  I  am  separated  from  all  men,  I  cannot  pur- 
chase therewith  an  ounce  of  bread  or  meat,  a  gill 
of  coffee  or  water.  James  knew  the  purchasing 
power  of  stamped  cohi,  but  he  also  knew  that 
other  things  have  procuring  value.  Toward  the 
seen  "  world  "  money  makes  a  man  rich  ;  but  it  has 
no  power  whatever  toward  the  unseen  world. 
There  "  faith  "  is  the  legal  tender.  A  man  may  be 
penniless  toward  the  world,  yet  able  to  procure  all 


I20  TJic  Gospel  of  Coinjuoji  Sense. 

the  things  needful  for  his  spirit,  so  that  he  may 
beconfie  wise,  and  great,  and  true,  and  heroic,  and 
lofty,  and  happy.  Among  those  who  are  "  the 
poor  of  the  world  "  are  multitudes  who  a^"?  among 
the  millionaires  of  faith,  being  the  chosen  of  God. 
And  God's  measure  of  a  man,  and  every  wise 
man's  measure  of  his  fellow,  is  not  according  to 
his  height,  or  weight,  or  age,  or  social  position,  or 
money,  or  intellect,  or  learning  ;  it  is  according  to 
his  faith,  to  his  power  of  perceiving,  receiving, 
and  retaining  truth  (Romans  12:  3).  A  man  may 
not  be  very  rich  in  the  possession  of  much  faith, 
but  any  faith  is  riches,  and  the  more  faith  the  more 
wealth.  And  often,  how  great  is  the  faith  of  the 
otherwise  poor. 

(3)  Not  only  are  many  who  are  of  "  the  poor  of 
the  world  "  chosen  of  God  and  rich  in  faith,  but 
they  are  also  heirs  to  future  greatness.  Hebrew- 
Christians  were  still  proud  of  their  blood  ;  they 
were  not  of  the  "  Gentiles,"  the  "  nations  "  ruled  by 
fools  or  knaves ;  they  were  of  the  theocracy,  the 
kingdom  whose  king  was  Jehovah.  Now,  James 
reminds  his  old  friends  and  parishioners,  that 
those  Gentiles  who  had  become  their  brethren  in  ■ 
Christ,  although  they  were  still  the  poor  of  the 
world,  were  favorites  of  God,  being  at  present  rich 
with  a  riches  which  does  not  vouch  for  itself  by 
the  display  of  gold  rings  and  brilliant  raiment ;  but 
also  that  they  are  heirs  [non-apparent,  indeed,  but] 
real  heirs  of  a  kingdom  made  good  to  them  by 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  121 

the  promises  of  that  God  who  to  Abraham  had 
conveyed  by  similar  promises  the  covenant  which 
had  secured  to  his  children  all  those  things  which 
they  had  so  richly  enjoyed  and  of  which  they 
were  so  justly  proud. 

Yes,  my  beloved  brethren,  James  would  say  ; 
they  are  brothers  of  yours  ;  brothers  adopted 
into  the  family  of  Abraham's  God  through  the 
Christ-Son  of  that  God;  and  they  are  that  God's 
favorites  ;  and,  although  they  have  not  that  which 
can  be  used  as  legal  tender  in  the  world's  financial 
transactions,  they  have  a  currency  good  in  all 
the  streets  of  the  city  of  God;  a  currency  which 
provides  for  them  that  which  is  far  above  all 
lands  and  houses,  and  sumptuous  appointments, 
and  brilliant  equipages  ;  and  they  are  hereafter 
to  sit  on  thrones  and  judge  the  world  (i  Cor.  6: 
2)  ;  and  judge  angels  (i  Cor.  6  :  3),  and  some  of 
them  shall  judge  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel 
(Matt.  19  :  28).  And  these  you  have  "despised," 
because  they  were  "  poor."  You  have  done  them 
injustice  at  your  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  and  dis- 
honor in  your  assemblies  for  public  worship.  Oh, 
my  beloved  brethren  ! 

ON   THE   SIDE   OF   THE   RICH. 

Then  he  calls  their  attention  to  the  character- 
istics of  those  very  rich  persons,  to  gain  whose 
favor  they  had  sacrificed  justice  and  charity. 
"They  had  money."  Well,  what  effect  had  that 
money  had  upon  their  characters,  and  how  had  it 


122  The  Gospel  of  Covimon  Sense. 

been  employed  by  them  ?  As  a  rule,  in  all  ages  of 
the  world,  great  riches  have  had  a  tendency  to 
make  men  selfish,  arrogant,  and  oppressive.  What 
has  not  been  spent  on  pampering  themselves,  the 
rich  had  usually  employed  to  oppress  the  poor. 
Those  to  whom  James  wrote  probably  knew  in- 
stances in  which  the  rich  Jews  and  rich  pagans 
had  "lorded  it  imperiously"  over  poor  Christians, 
drawing  them  into  pagan  courts,  and  using  the 
power  of  their  money  to  bring  undeserved  suffer- 
ings on  the  saints. 

But  there  was  something  worse  than  that, 
which,  at  least,  should  seem  worse  to  every  true 
Christian  heart.  Those  rich  men  had  blasphemed 
that  beautiful  and  reverent  name  by  which  Chris- 
tians had  been  called  in  baptism.  Of  course, 
those  who  persecuted  Christians  as  Christians, 
would  spit  upon  the  name  by  which  they  were 
called  ;  but  there  were  others  also,  who  had  not 
put  themselves  to  the  trouble  of  persecuting, 
but  who  had  blasphemed  that  fair  name.  And 
these,  James  would  seem  to  say,  are  they  for 
whose  worthless  favor  you  have  put  aside  the 
claims  of  those  who  were  saints,  because  those 
saints  were  not  rich  ! 
A  REPLY  TO  THE  DEFENCE   OF   THE   PARTIALIST. 

^'Ifin  truth  you  fulfil  that  royal  lazv  ^Love  thou 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  you  do  beautifully.  But  tf 
you  show  personal  partiality,  you  work  sin,  being 
convicted  by  the  law  as  transgressors.     For  whoso- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  1^3 

ever  shall  keep  t  lie  whole  law  and  yet  fall  in  one,  he 
has  become  arrested  of  all.  For  He  that  said  '  Thou 
shalt  not  commit  adultiry'  said  also  'Thou  shalt 
not  steal.'  Noiv,  if  thou  dost  not  commit  adultery, 
but  dost  steal,  thou  hast  become  a  transgressor  of  the 
law.  So  speak  and  so  act  as  those  zvho  are  about 
to  be  judged  through  a  law  of  liberty.  For  merci- 
less iudgment  is  to  him  who  does  not  act  mercy  ; 
mercy  glorieth  against judgmint"  (8-13). 

To  see  the  connection  of  this  statement  with 
what  went  before,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
James  is  addressing  those  who  were  Jews  by- 
birth,  or  under  the  influence  of  Judaizing  teachers. 
To  the  strong  things  he  had  said  he  may  have 
supposed  some  one  to  be  replying,  that  in  his 
attention  to  rich  but  unworthy  people,  he  was 
simply  obeying  the  law  which  commands  each  man 
to  love  his  neighbor  as  himself!  If  that  was  so, 
it  would  be  very  much  like  that  of  which  so  many 
men  in  our  age  are  guilty,  the  employment  of 
Scripture  for  the  defence  of  wrong.  It  has  been 
said  sometimes  sneeringly  that  something  can  be 
found  in  the  Bible  for  everything  and  every  occa- 
sion. What  a  compliment  to  the  fulness  of  the 
Bible.  Yes,  even  the  devil  finds  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture some  baits  for  the  hooks  he  throws  out  in 
fishing.  When  he  came  tempting  Jesus,  he  em- 
ployed inspired  language.  But  how  different  are 
Bible  phrases  and  Bible  truth  when  quoted  by 
Satan  and  by  Jesus  ! 


124  ^-^^^  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

To  meet  the  disingenuous  defence  James  does 
not  belittle  the  law.  On  the  contrary,  he  main- 
tains it,  and  dignifies  it  by  calling  it  "  the'  royal 
law."  And  so  it  is.  The  law  of  love  is  royal.  It 
stands  king  among  the  commands,  and  makes  all 
the  others  great  ;  it  ennobles  all  who  live  in  the 
air  of  its  blessed  spirit  ;  and  it  crowns  life  with 
beauty  and  glory.  But  the  law  must  be  revered 
and  obeyed  in  its  entirety,  and  should  govern 
the  Christian  quite  as  much  in  his  treatment  of 
the  poor  as  in  his  treatment  of  the  rich.  "  Re- 
spect of  persons  "  for  circumstances  rather  than  for 
their  character  is  sinful.  The  Hebrew-Christians 
should  have  remembered  Deut.  i6  :  19,  20,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  wrest  judgment ;  thou  shalt  not  respect 
persons  ;  that  which  is  altogether  just  shalt  thou 
follow."  They  were  convicted  as  sinful  by  the 
very  law  which  they  professed  to  keep. 

It  is  a  disgrace  to  one's  intellect  to  quote  the 
law  in  justification  of  one's  behavior  in  one  thing, 
when  the  authority  of  that  law  is  thrown  aside 
entirely  in  another.  It  is  not  good  to  behave  in 
this  way.  But  it  is  beautiful  to  have  the  hand  of 
that  law  laid  evenly  on  the  whole  of  a  man's  life. 
A   GREAT   PRINCIPLE. 

And  that  leads  our  writer  to  lay  down  the  great 
general  principle,  that  whosoever  shall  keep  the 
whole  law  and  yet  fail  in  one  as  certainly  lays  him- 
self open  to  punishment  as  the  man  who  has 
no  regard  for  any  portion  of  the  commands.     Un- 


TJic  Gospel  of  Coimnon  Soisc.  125 

doubtedly  the  case  is  of  so  frequent  occurrence  in 
our  day  that  every  reader  of  these  pages  must 
know  scores  of  people  who  are  described  by  this 
passage,  people  who  claim  to  be  moral,  who  sup- 
pose themselves  to  be  moral,  who  acknowledge 
the  demands  of  the  law  and  seem  to  yield  it  a 
kind  of  general  obedience,  and  yet  keep  some 
one  command  which  they  deliberately  and  habit- 
ually violate  in  public  or  in  private.  In  jAMES's 
day,  the  Rabbins  taught  that  if  a  man  kept  a 
single  one  of  the  commandments  faultlessly  he 
would  remain  in  the  favor  of  God.  This  teach- 
ing found  such  acceptance  with  them  that  it  was 
usual,  in  practice,  to  select  one  precept  for  careful 
observance,  generally  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  the 
law  of  sacrifice,  or  the  law  of  tithes,  looking  upon 
these  as  the  greater  commands,  making  little  ac- 
count of  mercy  and  judgment,  which  were  so 
much  in  the  eyes  of  Jesus.  Against  this  most  de- 
moralizing teaching  James  lays  the  exalted  and 
uplifting  doctrine  of  the  inviolability  of  tJie  ivhole 
law. 

We  do  well  to  confirm  ourselves  in  the  truth  of 
this  great  principle.     Let  us  consider  three  things. 

I.  It  is  not  merely  the  violation  of  God's  law 
we  are  to  regard,  but  the  temper  which  leads 
thereto.  Sinfulness  is  to  the  sinner  a  greater 
evil  than  the  sin.  The  sin  is  something  outside 
of  himself;  the  sinfulness  inside.  He  has  pro- 
jected the  sin  out  of  himself,  to  be  a  black  fact  in 


126  The  Gospel  of  Coinino7i  Sense. 

God's  universe;  the  sinfulness  remains  in  him  to 
be  the  black  parent  of  other  sinful  acts.  If  all  his 
past  sins  were  suddenly  annihilated  and  still  his 
sinfulness  remained  he  would  be  a  sinner.  It  is 
the  case  of  a  rebel  whose  king  may  have  for- 
given him,  but  who  still  nourishes  the  rebellious 
spirit  in  his  heart.  One  single  sin,  presumptuously 
and  habitually  indulged,  proves  the  existence  of 
the  spirit  of  rebellion  to  divine  authority.  The 
sovereign  cannot  tolerate  any  subject  who  holds 
himself  free  from  any  single  law  of  the  realm. 
There  may  be  an  external  obedience  without  loy- 
alty, for  loyalty  implies  love.  He  is  not  a  patriot 
who  serves  his  country,  or  keeps  his  country's  laws, 
for  fear  of  loss,  or  hope  of  reward.  He  is  not  a  true 
child  who  keeps  his  father's  commands  to  the  let- 
ter while  he  hates  the  command  and  dislikes  the 
father.  The  religion  of  Jesus  is  in  the  heart.  If 
a  man  has  obeyed  the  Heavenly  Father  through 
fear,  Jesus  desires  to  bring  him  to  such  a  state  of 
heart  that  his  love  for  the  Father  will  make 
obedience  to  the  Father's  commands  spontaneous 
and  delightful.  If  any  one  law  be  sequestrated, 
kept  apart  for  violation,  the  child  is  as  certainly 
disloyal,  the  man  is  as  certainly  a  sinner,  as  if  the 
whole  law  were  set  at  defiance. 

2.  James  urges  the  fact  that  each  law  has  been 
enacted  by  the  authority  which  makes  every 
other  law  obligatory.  This  unity  of  authority 
was    set    forth   in  the    law,    as   quoted   by  Jesus 


TJie  Gospel  of  Cojnmon  Sense.  127 

(Mark  12  :  29),  "The  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is 
one,"  and  responded  to  by  the  scribe  with  whom 
He  was  conversing  :  "  Of  a  verity.  Teacher,  thou 
hast  well  said  that  He  is  one  ;  and  there  is  none 
other  but  He."  It  is  not  difficult,  then,  to  per- 
ceive that  all  the  commandments  are  included 
in  each  single  commandment,  the  violation  of 
which  will  put  the  violator  under  arrest.  And 
it  may  be  well  to  note,  that  this  great  principle 
sets  every  law  enacted  by  our  Heavenly  Father 
in  the  light  of  sacredness,  so  that  it  seems  a  sole- 
cism to  speak  of  any  sins  as  "  little  sins,"  and 
any  lies  as  "white  lies."  Much  less  would  little 
sins  be  excusable,  if  there  were  little  sins.  They 
require  less  resistance,  while,  like  the  little  speck 
on  the  skin  of  the  fruit,  they  may  eat  in  and  de- 
stroy all. 

3.  There  is  no  middle  ground  between  this 
principle  and  the  surrender  of  all  government. 
If  a  thing  is  permissible,  a  wise  Ruler  should  not 
forbid  it.  If  a  thing  is  hurtful,  a  wise  Father 
should  not  allow  it.  If,  in  all  the  whole  cate- 
gory of  laws,  any  one  may  be  set  aside,  or  the 
violation  of  any  be  indulged  with  impunity,  then 
either  God  must  select  the  law  from  which  the 
divine  sanction  is  to  be  lifted,  or  the  man  who  de- 
sires to  sin  must  make  the  selection. 

If  God  be  supposed  to  select,  we  have  the  ex- 
traordinary suggestion  of  the  Father  cherishing 
disobedience  in  the  child,  the  monarch  affording 


128  TJic  Gospel  of  Connnon  Sense. 

aid  to  the  rebel,  the  only  perfectly  holy  person 
in  the  universe  sanctioning  sin. 

But  if  each  man  is  to  select  his  pet  sin  to  be 
indulged  with  impunity,  he  must  do  this  either 
with  or  without  the  approbation  of  God.  It  can- 
not be  the  former,  as  that  would  be  a  case  of 
God  sanctioning  sin,  which  cannot  be  enter- 
tained for  a  moment.  And  how  are  we  to  con- 
ceive of  a  man  selecting  a  single  sin  for  his  in- 
dulgence without  the  permission  of  God  .-'  But, 
suppose  we  could  take  in  that  idea ;  then  the 
following  would  result.  Each  man  would  reason 
from  the  liberty  of  the  others  to  a  larger  liberty 
for  himself,  and  so  the  area  of  rebellion  would  be 
perpetually  enlarging.  If  all  selected  the  same 
sin  the  terrific  state  of  society  may  be  imagined. 
Suppose,  for  instance,  all  men  kept  every  other 
commandment,  but  all  felt  at  liberty  to  violate 
the  eighth  in  the  Decalogue.  The  absolute 
worthlessness  of  all  property  would  immedietely 
ensue,  and  the  progress  of  civilization  come  to  a 
dead  halt.  Suppose  all  carefully  obeyed  every 
precept  of  the  law  but  the  sixth,  and  every  man 
felt  at  liberty  to  commit  homicide  at  any  time. 
It  is  plain  that  all  the  wit  and  energy  of  each 
man  would  be  concentrated  on  the  preservation 
of  a  life  which  would  be  worthless,  because  it 
would  be  reduced  to  a  mere  existence,  denied  of 
every  pleasure  which  comes  from  human  inter- 
course.    In   this  case,  as  well  as  in  the  case  of 


The  Gospel  of  Cominon  Sense.  129 

one  man  selecting  lying,  and  another  adultery, 
and  another  theft,  and  another  murder,  it  is  plain 
that  human  society  would  dissolve  and  the  moral 
government  of  the  universe  would  collapse. 

A  NECESSARY  PRINCIPLE. 
This  is  so  plainly  a  necessary  principle  of  all 
government  that  it  is  acknowledged  in  all  known 
codes  of  human  jurisprudence.  That  a  man  has 
paid  every  debt  but  one  would  not  discharge  the 
obligation  to  pay  that  debt.  Many  a  man  has 
been  hanged  for  a  solitary  act  of  malicious  homi- 
cide. To  the  defence  of  the  accused  might  be 
brought  proof  of  a  general  course  of  even  exem- 
plary conduct.  No  suspicion  had  ever  been  ex- 
pressed of  violation  by  him  of  any  other  law  than 
the  law  against  murder,  and  it  might  be  urged 
that  not  only  had  the  accused  never  been  sus- 
pected of  any  other  murder,  but  that  no  one  had 
ever  known  him  to  express  anything  but  chari- 
table and  even  generous  sentiments.  Still,  while 
there  remained  the  undeniable  and  overwhelm- 
ing proof  of  the  killing  of  one  man  with  malice 
aforethought,  thus  fixing  the  guilt  of  murder  upon 
him,  although  he  had  kept  the  whole  law,  having 
failed,  fallen,  offended  the  law,  in  one  instance, 
"  he  has  become  arrested  of  all."  A  man  that 
has  been  hanged  for  a  single  murder  has  suffered 
as  much  as  could  be  inflicted  upon  him  if  he  had 
violated  a  thousand  times  every  principle  of  con- 
stitutional law,  and  every  enactment  of  statute 
law. 


130  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

A  GUARDED  EXPRESSION. 

Now,  let  US  mark  that  this  uncommonly  sen- 
sible pastor  does  not  teach  his  scattered  parish- 
ioners that  a  man  who  has  committed  one  sin  is 
as  guilty  as  if  he  had  committed  a  thousand  ;  nor 
that  a  man  who  has  violated  one  commandment 
is  as  bad  a  man  as  if  he  had  daily  set  the  whole 
decalogue  at  defiance  and  shaped  his  life  to  throw 
contempt  on  the  whole  body  of  divine  law. 
Neither  must  he  be  supposed  to  teach  that  there 
is  but  one  grade  of  criminality,  which  is  reached 
by  every  sinner  in  his  first  sin,  nor  that  all  viola- 
tions of  God's  law  are  of  equal  heinousness.  But 
he  does  teach  that  one  sin,  any  one  sin,  is  as 
certainly  a  violation  of  God's  law,  representing 
God's  authority  and  majesty,  as  would  be  any 
form  of  casting  off  the  soul's  allegiance  to  God. 

What  is  still  more,  the  man  who  has  done  this, 
who  has  sequestrated  to  himself  some  department 
of  morals  in  which  he  has  regarded  himself  as  free 
from  the  authority  of  God,  so  that  he  has  com- 
mitted some  certain  sin  habitually,  as  if  it  were  a 
permissible  indulgence,  is  not  the  man  who  can 
claim  to  be  saved  by  the  laiv;  and  this  is  precisely 
the  case  James  had  in  hand.  The  persons  whose 
conduct  he  was  arraigning,  justified  themselves  by 
an  appeal  to  the  law,  whose  authority  they  had 
thrown  off.  It  was  as  if  a  murderer  should  plead 
for  discharge  on  the  ground  that  he  had  never 
stolen.     His  argument   would  be  that  the  strict 


The  Gospel  of  Coimnon  Sense.  131 

observance  of  the  eighth  commandment  set  him 
free  to  disregard  the  sixth. 

James  shows  his  readers  what  Paul  showed  his, 
namely,  that  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  no  man  can 
be  shown  to  be  just,  since  all  men  have  stumbled 
at  some  point,  and  so  are  under  arrest  for  violation 
of  law.  We  cannot  be  saved  if  we  reject  the 
mercy  of  God,  and  insist  upon  resting  our  case  on 
perfect  obedience  to  a  perfect  law.  When  a  man 
rejects  the  mercy  of  God,  he  must  abide  by  the 
legal  judgment  of  God. 

But  the  persons  to  whom  James  wrote  had  ac- 
cepted God's  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ.  To  a  be- 
liever the  law  is  not  grievous  ;  it  is  his  life.  To 
one  out  of  Christ  the  law  is  a  bondage,  a  restraint. 
He  does  good,  he  ever  does  right,  by  a  con- 
straint from  without.  He  is  drawn  to  duty  by  the 
law,  as  if  a  man  were  pulled  along  the  right  road 
by  ropes  wherewith  he  had  been  bound.  The 
true  believer  is  impelled  to  doing  right  and  doing 
good  from  an  inner  impulse,  an  impulse  of  love  for 
God  created  by  the  mercy  of  God,  It  is  a  law  to 
him,  but  it  is  a  law  of  love,  and  James  says  it  is 
a  law  of  liberty.  His  service  is  perfect  freedom 
whom  we  love  to  obey. 

CHOOSE   MERCY. 

What  shal'  we  choose  .'*  Let  us  choose  mercy. 
We  cannot  abide  the  judgment  of  God  in  its 
strictness,  if  we  solicit  a  verdict  for  our  lives  by 
the  demands  of  the  law.     Let  us  throw  ourselves 


132  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

on  God's  mercy.  Awfully  holy  as  is  the  judg- 
ment of  God,  the  mercy  of  God  is  more  awfully 
beautiful  and  glorious.  It  triumphs  over  judg- 
ment, as  a  superior  over  an  inferior.  The  Heav- 
enly Father  glories  in  it  more  than  in  judgment. 
The  practical  moral  effect  upon  our  conduct 
should  be  to  lead  us  to  be  more  than  just  and  im- 
partial, not  only  doing  right  by  all  men,  but  as 
we  have  opportunity  doing  "  good  unto  all  men, 
especially  to  them  that  are  of  the  household  of 
faith."  And  we  must  never  forget  that  as  mercy 
is  the  quality  of  His  nature  which  is  most  delight- 
ful to  God,  that  quality  in  Himself  in  which  He 
most  glories,  so  mercilessness  in  man  is  the 
thing  which  our  Lord  will  least  tolerate,  because 
it  is  the  thing  He  most  abhors. 


VI. 

Faith  and  Works. 

CHAPTER  II  :    1 4-26. 
JUSTIFICATION. 

JAMES  proceeds  to  inculcate  holy  and  char- 
itable living,  as  important  to  assure  a  be- 
liever that  he  is  a  believer,  and  to  justify 
his  faith  to  the  world  by  proving  (i)  that  he  really 
holds  the  faith  which  he  professes  and  (2)  that 
that  faith  is  a  living  and  fruitful  power  in  his 
spirit. 

That  we  may  have  before  us  the  whole  state- 
ment, let  us  read  critically  the  entire  passage  from 
the  fourteenth  verse  to  the  end  of  the  second 
chapter. 

"  What  profit  is  it,  brothers  mine,  if  one  claim  to 
have  faith,  but  have  not  ivorks  ?  If  a  brother  or 
sister  become  naked  and  lacking  daily  food,  a?td  one 
among  yon  say  to  them,  'Go  in  peace,  be  ivarmed 
ajtd  fattened,"  while  ye  do  not  give  to  them  the 
things  needful  for  the  body, — what  profit  is  it  ? 
Thus  also  that  faith,  seeing  it  has  not  works,  is 
dead,  being  by  itself.  But  says  one  'Thou  hast 
faith  and  I  have  works.  Shozv  me  that  faith  of 
thine  by  thy  works,  and  I  will  shozv  thee  by  my 
works   that  faith   of  mine.      Thou   belicvest   that 


134  ^'^^^'  Gospel  of  Coimnon  Sense. 

God  is  one  ?  Well  doest  thou  ;  even  the  demons  be- 
lieve, and  shudder'  But  art  thou  willing  to  know, 
O  empty  man,  that  the  fait  Ji  without  tvorks  is  dead? 
Abraham,  the  fatJier  of  us — was  he  not  by  works 
made  just,  in  offering  his  son  Isaac  upon  the  altar  ? 
Thou  seest  that  faith  was  co-operating  with  his 
works,  and  by  works  the  faith  made  complete ;  and 
the  Scripture  zvas  fulfilled,  tvJiich  said  '■Abraham 
put  his  faith  in  God  and  it  zvas  counted  to  him 
for  righteousness  {jiprightntss]  and  he  zvas  called 
God's-friend.'  You  sic  then  that  by  works  a  man 
is  made  upright  \j-ig]iteous~\  and  not  by  faith  only. 
And  likezvise  also  zvas  not  RaJiab  the  harlot  made 
Just  by  zvorks,  receiving  the  messengers  and  send- 
ing them  out  another  way  ?  For  as  the  body  zvith- 
out  the  spirit  is  dead,  so  also  faith  without  zvorks 
is  dead." 

We  come  now  to  a  much-discussed  part  of  the 
Epistle  of  James,  upon  which  great  strength  has 
been  needlessly  wasted  and  many  profitless  words 
have  been  spoken  and  written.  May  we  be  saved 
from  adding  thereto  ! 

JAMES   AND   PAUL. 

In  the  first  place,  there  has  been  the  sinister 
criticism  that  the  words  of  James  antagonize 
those  of  Paul,  and,  in  the  second  place,  that  they 
were  intended  to  correct  the  teachings  of  the 
Apostle.  The  groundlessness  of  all  this  appears 
(i)  from  the  fact  that  a  careful  examination  of  the 
paths  travelled  by  the  two  writers,  beginning  at 


TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  135 

different  stations,  come  together  in  the  end;  that 
is,  that  while  treating  two  different  subjects,  in 
fundamentals  they  agree ;  (2)  that  this  epistle  can 
not  be  regarded  as  a  criticism  upon  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  seeing  that  Paul's  letter  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  published  after  the  Epistle  of 
James,  and  that  there  is  no  historic  evidence  that 
James  ever  saw  or  heard  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans  during  his  whole  life;  and  (3)  those  who 
believe  that  both  writers  wrote  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  know  that  there  must 
be  agreement  in  all  essentials,  and  that  any  ap- 
pearance of  disagreement,  if  there  be  such,  must  be 
due  to  the  defective  intelligence  of  the  reader. 

Let  us  notice  the  classes  of  persons  severally 
addressed  by  these  writers.  They  are  not  all  of 
one  class.  When  Paul  is  writing  in  regard  to 
justification  by  faith,  he  is  considering  the  class  of 
unregenerate  men,  men  who  neither  have  nor  claim 
perfect  uprightness  but  are  supposed  to  be  sincere- 
ly and  anxiously  asking  the  question,  how  a  man 
is  to  be  justified  with  God.  J  AMES  is  considering 
the  class  of  men  who  are  regenerate,  or  suppose 
themselves  so,  who  believe  that  they  have  been 
justified  as  to  God  and  must  now  establish  their 
claim  to  righteousness  with  their  fellow-men. 

He  had  already  in  the  former  chapter  shown  that 
he  held  what  is  called  the  doctrine  of  "  justification 
by  faith,"  only  he  had  chosen  to  express  it,  or  per- 
haps it  were  better  to  say  that  he  naturally  ex- 


136  The  Gospel  of  Coimnon  Sense. 

pressed  it,  in  the  language  of  his  brother  Jesus,  in 
phraseology  common  to  two  men  who  had  grown 
up  in  the  same  family.  He  had  said  that  our  re- 
generation had  its  source  in  God,  the  Giver  of 
good  gifts  (as  Jesus  had  said  (Matt.  7  :  ii)  "  How 
much  more  shall  your  Father  in  heaven  give  good 
things  to  them  that  ask  Him ! )  and  that  the 
instrument  was  "  the  word  of  God  "  (as  Jesus  had 
said  (John  17:  17)  when  praying  to  the  Father, 
•'  Sanctify  them  through  Thy  truth,  Thy  word  is 
truth")  and  that  the  condition  was  our  faith;  "re- 
x^ve  with  meekness  the  ingrafted  word  which  is 
able  to  save  your  souls,"  (as  Jesus  had  said  "  that 
whosoever  believed  in  Him  may  have  endless  life  ' 
(John  3  :  15),  and  (John  6 :  47),  "  He  that  believeth 
on  Me  hath  endless  life  "). 

The  comparison  of  the  deliverances  of  these 
two  inspired  men  of  God  shows  that  if  the  doc- 
trine of  "justification  by  faith  "  is  set  forth  by 
Paul  logically,  the  same  doctrine  is  set  forth  by 
James  more  evangelically  ;  that  is,  less  in  the 
language  of  the  schools  and  more  in  the  language 
attributed  by  the  Evangelists  to  Jesus ;  the  one 
addressing  the  logical  understanding  of  the  un- 
regenerate  man,  the  other  appealing  to  the  heart 
of  the  professed  Christian. 

THEOLOGY  AND  ETHICS. 

It  may  be  profitable  to  see  how  the  great  theo- 
logical teacher  agrees  with  the  great  ethical 
teacher.      It   would   be   doing  injustice   to   Paul 


Tlic  Gospel  of  Cojiivion  Sense.  137 

to  suppose,  as  many  do,  that  he  taught  that 
nothing  was  necessary  beyond  a  mere  intellect- 
ual assent  to  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  that 
he  thus  yielded  to  the  ruinous  teaching  of  some  of 
the  Jewish  rabbis  and  the  disastrous  belief  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  Jews  of  his  own  day,  namely, 
that  assent  to  the  truth  is  all  that  is  requisite  for 
salvation,  thus  inculcating  that  faith  which  James 
demonstrates  to  be  "dead."  Paul's  "faith"  is 
represented  in  the  vivacious  language  of  Luther  : 
"  Oh,  faith  is  a  lively,  busy,  active  thing,  so  that  it 
is  impossible  for  it  not  to  be  ceaselessly  working 
good  ;  it  does  not  ask  if  good  works  are  to  be 
done,  but  before  it  asks  it  has  done  them,  and  is 
ever  doing." 

So  Paul  says  things  Hke  these  :  "  If  I  had  all' 
faith,  so  as  to  remove  mountains,  and  have  not 
love,  I  am  nothing"  (i  Cor.  13:2).  And  "Now 
abide,  faith,  hope,  love  ;  and  the  greatest  of  these 
is  love"  (i  Cor.  13:  13).  And  "Stand  fast  in 
the  faith  ;  quit  you  like  men  ;  be  strong  ;  let  all 
that  ye  do  be  done  in  love  "  (i  Cor.  16  :  13).  And 
"Faith  worketh  by  love"  (Gal.  5  :  6j,  which  is 
simply  another  way  of  putting  James's  teaching 
on  this  subject.  A  faith  that  does  not  work  is  no 
faith,  and  a  faith  that  works,  but  does  not  work 
by  love  is  a  profitless  faith.  It  is  now  quite  plain 
that  when  Paul  is  teaching  that  in  order  to  stand 
uprightly  before  God  one  must  have  faith,  and 
puts  it  thus    (Rom.  3  :  28)  :  "We  reckon  that  a 


i^- 


138  The  Gospel  of  Conunon  Sense. 

man  is  made  just  by  faith  apart  from  the  works 
of  law,"  he  is  teaching  that  a  man  is  regenerated 
not  by  what  he  does  in  striving  to  avoid  a  viola- 
tion of  the  law,  but  by  his  faith  in  God's  words. 
And  we  must  not  fail  to  notice,  that  what  Paul 
calls  "the  works  of  the  law  "  are  very  different 
from  the  works  of  which  James  is  writing.  The 
former  were  the  things  done  by  an  unregenerate 
man,  from  obedience  to  the  law  and  for  the  profit 
of  the  doer,  who  expected  thereby  to  be  justified; 
the  latter,  the  things  done  by  a  regenerate  man 
from  love,  for  the  benefit  of  others. 

James  plainly  believed  that  there  was  no  faith 
which  does  not  produce  such  good  works  as  these. 
If  a  man  supposed  himself  to  be  justified  by  his 
faith,  how  is  his  faith  to  be  justified  }  How  is  he 
to  be  sure  he  has  the  faith  that  makes  him  just 
before  God  .''  It  is  by  the  works  of  love  produced 
by  that  faith.  That  faith  will  surely  produce 
those  works.  It  could  not  exist  without  work- 
ing, so  if  no  works  of  love  appear,  it  is  manifest 
that  no  living  faith  exists. 

This  is  seen  in  the  opening  words  of  his  address 
on  this  subject.  He  is  not  speaking  of  a  man 
who  really  has  faith,  but  of  a  man  who  claims  to 
have  the  faith  he  does  not  possess.  He  states 
and  examines  only  the  claim.  As  his  brother 
Jesus  had  put  the  question  as  to  what /r^^  there 
is  gaining  the  world  if  the  soul  be  lost,  and  Paul 
had  put  the  question  as  to  w\\2it  profit  there  is  in 


The  Gospel  of  Coininoii  Sense.  139 

works  which  might  help  others  but  were  devoid 
of  the  grace  of  charity,  so  James  put  the  question 
as  to  what  profit  there  is  in  making  a  claim  when 
the  claimant  can  point  to  nothing  whatever  that 
can  be  helpful  in  substantiating  that  claim.  What 
profit,  what  help,  to  him  who  makes  it  or  to 
others,  is  a  claim  that  something  is  a  living  thing, 
when  it  never  presents  any  of  the  phenomena  of 
life,  never  sees,  hears,  feels,  speaks,  or  moves  ? 

It  is  to  be  kept  in  mind  that  James  is  not 
speaking  of  the  faith  that  justifies,  that  is,  that 
makes  a  man  just  before  God,  apart  from  those 
works  of  the  law  which  the  man  does  (which  is 
the  faith  Paul  speaks  of  in  Rom.  3  :  28,)  nor  of 
faith  in  general.  He  does  not  ask,  "  Can  faith 
save  him  ^  "  But  he  does  ask,  "  Can  that  faith 
save  him  .-'"  What  faith  ^  A  worthless,  inopera- 
tive faith.  There  is  often  a  strong  assertion  in  a 
question.  Indeed,  sometimes  it  is  the  most  for- 
cible way  of  making  an  assertion.  James  plainly 
intended  that  the  question  should  have  the  force 
of  a  very  emphatic  assertion.  If  Paul  had  ever 
read  this  question  in  the  Epistle  of  James,  his 
answer  would  probably  have  been  an  emphatic 
declaration  :  "  No,  such  a  faith  as  that  could  save 
no  man  ;  neither  can  any  other  faith  than  that 
faith  which  worketh  through  love,  as  I  said  in  my 
epistle  to  the  Galatians  "  (Gal.  5  :  6).  There  is 
no  value  in  any  faith,  or  any  charity,  or  any  work 
which  does  not  "  save,"  which  does  not  preserve 
a  man's  character. 


140  The  Gospel  of  Couiinon  Sense. 

You  believe  in  God  the  Father  Ahnighty  ;  do 
you?  You  beheve  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  who 
tasted  death  for  every  man  ;  do  you  ?  You  be- 
lieve in  the  sentence  which  was  so  often  on  the 
lips  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive  "  ;  do  you  ?  We  shall  see  whether 
that  faith  exist  or  whether  only  your  claim  to  it 
exist,  whether  you  possess  the  faith,  that  faith 
that  works  by  love,  or  are  merely  an  empty  pro- 
fessor. 

Such  may  be  supposed  to  be  the  address  of 
James  to  the  professor  of  that  faith  in  Jesus  which 
justifies  a  man,  which  saves  a  man,  which  makes 
a  man  fit  to  live  and  fit  to  die. 

THE  PRACTICAL  TEST. 

Then  our  writer  paints  a  picture.  The  claim- 
ant to  saving  faith  has  means.  He  is  not  a  pau- 
per. Two  persons  are  known  to  him,  a  man  and 
a  woman.  A  woman  in  want  is  a  very  sad  sight  ; 
perhaps  a  man  in  want  is  sadder.  When  a  man 
cannot  support  himself  by  reason  of  any  providen- 
tial hindrance,  we  know  that  whatever  manhood 
is  in  him  must  suffer  intensely.  He  says  to  him- 
self, "  A  woman  cannot  be  expected  to  support 
herself,  but  I'm  a  man  ;  and  it's  disgraceful  for  a 
man  to  be  dependent  for  his  subsistence  upon 
another."  This  professor  of  faith  finds  a  man, 
a  real  true  man,  not  a  heathen,  not  an  infidel,  not 
a  blasphemer,  not  an  impostor,  but  a  good,  true 
man,  a  brother  in  Christ,  who  is  no  tramp,  who 


The  Gospel  of  Coniuiou  Sense.  141 

has  never  begged,  who  does  not  even  beg  from 
the  professor,  who  has  toiled  with  his  own  hands, 
providing  things  that  are  honest  in  the  sight  of 
God  ;  but  now  he  is  down  in  the  world.  He  has 
no  longer  strength  to  do  enough  work  each  day 
to  gain  that  day's  bread.  And  his  clothing  is 
insufficient.  It  has  been  washed  and  patched 
until  it  has  become  too  worn  to  keep  him  com- 
fortable, and  too  shabby  to  allow  him  to  go 
into  decent  society.  And  the  "  professor  "  says, 
"  Brother,  go  in  peace,"  and  shows  him  out.  The 
"g-ct."  is  plainly  from  the  heart,  and  the  "  in 
peace  "  is  manifestly  cant.  And  next  day,  the 
professor  says  that  same  to  a  woman,  who  is  a 
woman  of  good  fame  and  faith,  being  the  profes- 
sor's "sister,"  that  is  if  the  blood  of  Jesus  runs  in 
him.  But  she  is  deeply  reduced.  "  Go  in  peace. 
Be  warmed.  Be  fattened,"  says  the  claimant  to 
saving  faith.  But  the  "brother"  gets  no  food 
from  him,  and  the  "sister"  goes  off  shivering  in 
her  thin  garments.  Neither  the  brother  nor  the 
sister  carries  away  anything  which  will  make  life 
more  tolerable. 

Next  day,  jAMES  is  supposed  to  have  met  the 
*'  professor  of  religion "  with  whom  he  has  had 
argument,  and  catechizes  him  on  the  result  of 
yesterday's  interview.  "You  had  faith,  had  you.-* 
Well,  what  profit  was  it  ?  It  did  you  no  good. 
It  did  not  save  you  from  being  a  mean,  heartless, 
unbrotherly  man.     It  did  not  profit  the  brother, 


142  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

nor  did  it  profit  the  sister.  It  did  not  satisfy 
their  hunger,  nor  protect  them  from  the  cold. 
It  was  helpful  neither  inwardly  nor  outwardly. 
Your  faith  is  dead.  If  it  were  not,  it  would  give 
proof  of  life  ;  but  it  is  as  much  alive  as  a  bulb 
buried  in  a  stone  tomb,  which,  being  separated 
from  earth,  and  light,  and  the  fresh  air,  is  soon  a 
dead  thing,  if  ever  it  were  alive." 

FACTS   OF   EXPERIENCE. 

Here  our  writer  points  to  most  important  facts 
in  human  experience,  namely,  (i)  that  that  which 
ceases  to  grow  begins  to  decay,  and  (2)  that  a 
continuance  of  life  without  exercise  is  impracti- 
cable. Let  the  case  be  supposed  of  a  man  sud- 
denly endowed  with  the  liveliest  conceivable 
faith.  If  that  faith  is  not  exercised  it  dies.  No 
man  can  long  believe  in  God  the  Father  Al- 
mighty who  goes  weeks  and  months  behaving  as 
if  he  and  all  the  universe  were  orphaned.  No 
man  can  long  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  his  Sa- 
vior who  does  not  allow  Jesus  Christ  to  save  him. 
No  man  can  long  believe  in  the  brotherhood  of 
man  who  never  .reats  any  other  man  as  if  he 
were  his  brother.  In  this  it  appears  that  faith 
without  works  is  dead. 

But  this  pertinacious,  do-nothing  professor  ol 
religion  is  met  by  a  sincere  Christian,  who  says  to 
him,  "  Thou  hast  faith  and  I  have  works."  The 
suggestion  seems  to  be  that,  for  a  moment  and 
for  the  argument,  we   may  admit  that  faith  and 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  143 

good  works  may  exist  apart.  Tiien,  how  is  the 
inoperative  faith  to  prove  its  existence  ?  How  is 
it  possible  to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  life  in 
the  absence  of  vital  phenomena  ?  "  Prove  your 
faith,"  says  the  true  Christian.  "  You  know  that 
there  is  no  other  way  than  by  good  works  ;  but 
you  admit  that  you  have  no  good  works,  nay, 
that  you  even  scorn  them  ;  you  cannot,  therefore, 
show  your  faith."  A  true  Cinistian  faith  always 
produces  good  works  and  thus  has  its  creden- 
tials. A  man's  faith  is  invisible  ;  so  is  the  vege- 
table vitality  in  the  sap  of  an  apple-tree.  How 
are  we  to  know  that  the  sap  is  in  the  tree  and  is 
alive,  if  no  fruit  nor  even  blossoms  corhe  .■' 

The  true  Christian  interlocutor  goes  on  to  tight- 
en the  grip  on  the  conscience  of  the  man  who 
professes  to  have  a  faith  which  he  acknowledges 
to  be  inoperative.  He  argues  thus  :  "  You  be- 
lieve that  faith,  and  faith  alone,  the  mere  intel- 
lectual assent  of  the  mind  to  the  truth,  will  save 
a  man.  Well,  let  us  try  it.  The  fundamental 
truth  of  religion  is  that  indispensable  truth  with- 
out which  no  religion,  true  or  false,  can  exist, 
namely,  there  is  a  God.  Of  any  true  religion  the 
basal  truth  is  God  is  one.  You  believe  that.  It 
is  well.  But  does  faith  in  that  immense  truth 
save  ?  Your  proposition  is,  that  if  any  one  be- 
lieve any  great  religious  truth  he  is  saved.  But 
the  demons,  who  are  as  orthodox  as  the  arch- 
angel on    the  fundarrjental    doctrine  of  religion, 


144  ^-^^^^  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

r>are  not  saved.  Then  one  may  believe  and  not 
be  saved.  The  faith  of  the  demons  produces  no 
good  works,  but  many  evil  works.  They  believe 
and  shudder  ;  they  do  not  rejoice  in  believing. 
They  believe  ;  they  were  prompt  to  assert  their 
belief  in  the  Son  of  God  when  He  was  upon  earth. 
Were  any  of  them  saved  ?  No  ;  they  were  all 
cast  out.  The  most  conspicuous  example  in  the 
universe  of  a  firmly  fixed  faith  in  the  foundation 
truth  of  religion,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  most  thor- 
oughly unsaved  persons  in  the  universe — the  lost 
demons ;  they  who  have  a  dead  faith,  are  them- 
selves as  dead  as  the  demons." 

THE  CASE  OF  ABRAHAM. 
Then,  either  James  or  the  Christian  who  is 
supposed  to  be  laboring  with  the  self-deceived 
"  professor  of  religion,"  who  was  a  Hebrew-Chris- 
tian, presses  him  still  further.  He  is  addressed 
as  an  empty  man,  in  whose  hands  are  neither 
seed  for  sowing  nor  gathered  sheaves.  In  such  a 
condition,  he  is  asked  whether  he  is  willing  to 
know  that  his  inoperative  faith  is  dead  }  The 
hearer  was  a  descendant  of  Abraham,  who  is  at 
the  other  pole  from  the  demons.  Abraham  was 
"justified";  no  one  questions  that.  Why  does 
no  one  question  that  }  For  the  following  reasons  : 
He  was  called  out  of  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  and  he 
believed  that  he  should  go  (Gen.  12).  How 
did  he  know,  and  how  were  others  to  know,  that 
he  believed  that  he  should  go  from   his  country, 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  145 

and  his  kindred,  and  his  father's  house,  after  God 
had  promised  to  make  him  a  great  nation,  and  in 
him  to  bless  all  the  families  of  the  earth  ?  Be- 
cause he  "■departed,  as  the  Lord  had  said  unto 
him."  He  might  have  staid  in  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees  for  a  century,  professing  to  have  faith  in 
God  ;  but  neither  man  nor  God  would  have  dis- 
covered it.  But  the  long  and  tiresome  journey 
from  Haran  in  Mesopotamia,  to  Sichem,  near  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  under  the  depressing  influ- 
ence of  exile  from  his  native  place,  a  bereave- 
ment of  which  scarcely  any  man  in  Christendom 
has  the  least  conception  in  this  century,  in  which 
almost  every  man  dies  where  he  was  not  born — 
that  journey  justified  him. 

That  faith  which  works  grows  stronger  after 
this  exhibition  of  his  faith.  The  Lord  made  a 
fresh  covenant  with  him  to  give  him  and  his  chil- 
dren the  land  in  which  he  was.  And  the  years 
went  by,  and  there  was  no  child  born  to  Abra- 
ham ;  but  while  he  brooded  over  the  promise  to 
his  seed,  the  promise  that  he  should  become  a 
great  nation,  there  was  no  sign  of  the  coming 
first  child.  And  still  his  estate  grew  richer,  and 
he  fought  his  battles  out  to  victory,  his  faith 
clinging  to  the  promise  of  a  great  family,  while 
yet  there  was  no  child.  And  the  years  went, 
and  Abraham  was  ninety  and  nine  years  old,  and 
God's  promise  was  repeated,  and  yet  no  child 
came.  But  as  he  closed  his  century  the  child 
came.     Isaac  was  born. 


146  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

But  who  was  to  know  that  Abraham  had  been 
faithful  all  this  time  ?  And  as  Isaac  grew,  who  was 
to  know  that  he  was  a  man  justified  by  faith? 
God  knew  that  faith  without  works,  if  it  were  not 
dead,  would  die  ;  and  without  works  would  remain 
forever  incomplete.  And  so  the  divinely  ap- 
pointed test  came.  And  Abraham's  faith  co-oper- 
ated with  his  works ;  and  the  offering  of  his  Isaac 
completed  his  faith.  So  the  Scripture  was  ful- 
filled which  said  (Gen.  15  :  6),  "He  believed  the 
Lord  and  it  was  counted  to  him  for  righteous- 
ness." Why  was  it  so  "counted?"  Because  it 
was  righteousness.  Faith  in  God  is  righteousness, 
and  makes  a  man  righteous.  Men  often  impute 
to  a  man  that  which  he  really  has  not.  The  Lord 
can  never  make  any  such  mistake.  When  he  ac- 
counts that  a  man  has  anything,  the  man  has  that 
thing.  James  believed  that  a  man  is  justified  by 
faith,  but,  as  he  says,  not  "by  faith  only."  Paul 
believed  that  a  man  is  justified  by  works,  but  not 
"by  works  only,"  for  whatsoever  is  not  of  faith  is 
sin  (Romans  14:  23).  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the 
same  passage,  from  Gen.  15:6,  is  employed  by  the 
Apostle  Paul  (Romans  4 : 4),  in  his  argument  on 
justification  by  faith. 

THE   PHILOTHEANS. 

Not  only  did  God  count  Abraham's  faith  for 
righteousness,  but  after  his  offering  of  Isaac,  men 
had  such  respect  for  Abraham  that  they  called  him 
"God's-friend,"    a    Philothean.     Mark,    he   is  not 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  147 

called  'Hhe  friend  of  God"  so  as  to  separate  him 
from  all  men  of  faith,  but  the  name  given  him  as- 
signs him  to  a  class  of  persons  into  which  they 
come,  and  only  they,  whose  faith  in  God  is  exhib- 
ited to  the  world  by  works  of  love  toward  their 
fellow-men ;  they  are  all  Philotheans,  none  other 
can  justly  be  called  by  that  excellent  name.  It 
began  with  Abraham.  It  was  reinstituted  by  Jesus 
the  Lord  (John  15:8):  "  Herein  is  My  Father  glo- 
rified, that  ye  bear  much  fruit ;  and  so  shall  ye  be 
My  disciples.  Even  as  the  Father  hath  loved  Me, 
I  also  have  loved  you :  abide  ye  in  My  love.  If 
ye  keep  My  commandments,  ye  shall  abide  in  My 
love ;  even  as  I  have  kept  My  Father's  command- 
ments, and  abide  in  His  love.  These  things  have 
I  spoken  unto  you,  that  My  joy  may  be  in  you, 
and  that  your  joy  may  be  fulfilled.  This  is  My- 
commandment,  that  ye  love  one  another,  even  as 
I  have  loved  you.  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than 
this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  frie^ids. 
Ye  are  My  friends,  if  ye  do  the  things  which  I 
command  you.  No  longer  do  I  call  you  slaves; 
for  the  slave  knoweth  not  what  his  lord  doeth : 
but  I  have  called  you  friends ;  for  all  things 
that  I  heard  from  My  Father  I  have  made  known 
unto  you.  Ye  did  not  choose  Me,  but  I  chose 
you,  and  appointed  you,  that  ye  should  go  and 
bear  fruit,  and  that  your  fruit  should  abide." 
THE  CASE  OF  RAHAB. 
James  had  selected  the  most  splendid  instance 
among  men,  and  that  which  above  every  human 


148  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

name  would  attract  the  attention  and  command 
the  respect  of  those  to  whom  he  wrote.  That  his 
argument  might  be  complete,  he  now  cites  the 
case  of  a  Gentile,  who  was  a  woman,  who  was 
a  harlot.  To  her  there  had  come  an  account  of 
Jehovah's  terrible  things  in  Egypt  and  stupen- 
dous doings  in  the  desert,  and  what  He  had  done 
to  the  two  kings  of  the  Amorites,  that  were  on 
the  other  side  of  Jordan,  Sihon  and  Og,  whom  He 
had  utterly  destroyed.  Knowing  His  power  and 
His  promise,  she  believed  Him.  Before  she  had 
seen  one  of  the  people  to  whom  she  believed  that 
Jehovah  had  given  her  land,  she  had  lived  in 
secret  faith.  If  she  had  had  opportunity  to  dis- 
play that  faith  in  works  of  goodness  and  had  not 
done  so,  her  faith  would  have  died.  No  one 
knew  it.  But  when  the  time  came  in  which  she 
could  show  her  faith  by  her  works,  she  received 
and  delivered  the  spies  of  Joshua  as  the  messen- 
ger of  the  true  God,  she  made  a  profession  of  her 
faith,  she  abandoned  her  former  sinful  life,  at- 
tached herself  to  the  people  of  God,  and  spent 
the  rest  of  her  life  in  the  service  of  Jehovah.  Of 
what  use  would  her  faith  have  been  if  unaccom- 
panied by  good  works  }  Would  she  have  been 
saved  .''  On  the  contrary,  she  would  have  been 
lost,  and  the  whole  force  of  her  life  would  have 
been  with  her.  A  dead  faith  cannot  quicken  a 
spirit  into  holy  living.  But  her  works,  which 
sprang    from    faith,  justified   her  faith.     In    her 


The  Gospel  of  C  iinnon  Sense.  149 

ignorance  of  the  high  demand  for  veracity  made 
by  her  new  religion,  she  had  lied  ;  but  her  faith 
worked  by  love  and  purified  her  heart,  and  she 
was  admitted  into  the  glorious  company  of  the 
Philothcans,  and  died  in  the  midst  of  Israel,  a 
true  daughter  of  Abraham. 

FREDERICK  W.  ROBERTSON'S  ILLUSTRATION. 

After  all,  do  sincere  and  simple  hearts  make 
any  trouble  out  of  the  apparent  contradiction  ? 
Is  it  not  cynical,  sinister,  bent  souls,  or  men  who 
delight  to  put  off  their  duty  on  any  plea,  even 
the  slightest,  who  are  glad  to  find  what  can  be 
raised  in  an  excuse  for  wrong-doing  ?  Voltaire 
could  find  something  to  sneer  at  in  the  seeming 
opposition  of  Paul  and  jAMES,  but  not  such  a 
clear-headed,  lofty-spirited  man  as  Frederick  W. 
Robertson.  The  latter  says,  "  Suppose  I  say, 
'  A  tree  cannot  be  struck  without  thunder  ;'  that 
is  true,  for  there  is  never  destructive  lightning 
without  thunder.  But  again,  if  I  say,  '  The  tree 
was  struck  by  lightning  without  thunder,'  that  is 
true  too,  if  I  mean  that  the  lightning  alone 
struck  it  without  the  thunder  striking  it.  Yet 
read  the  two  assertions  together,  and  they  seem 
contradictory.  So,  in  the  same  way,  Paul  says, 
'  Faith  justifies  without  works,' — that  is,  faith 
alone  is  that  which  justifies  us,  not  works.  But 
James  says,  '  Not  a  faith  which  is  without  works.' 
There  will  be  works  with  faith,  as  there  is  thun- 
der with  lightning  ;  but  just  as  it  is  not  the  thun- 
der, but  the  lightning,  the  lightning  without  the 


150  The  Gospel  of  Commm  Sense. 

thunder,  that  strikes  the  tree,  so  it  is  not  the 
works  which  justify.  Put  it  in  one  sentence — 
faith  alone  justifies,  but  not  the  faith  ivhich  is 
alone.  Lightning  alone  strikes,  but  not  the  light- 
ning which  is  alone,  without  thunder  ;  for  that  is 
only  summer  lightning,  and  harmless." 

ARCHBISHOP  WHATELY'S  ILLUSTRATION. 
Practical  life  sweeps  away  the  cobwebs  of  soph- 
istry. Archbishop  Whately  tells  the  follow- 
ing instructive  story.  Two  gentlemen  were  one 
day  crossing  the  river  in  a  ferry-boat.  A  dispute 
about  faith  and  works  arose,  one  saying  that 
good  works  were  of  small  importance,  and  that 
faith  was  everything,  the  other  asserting  the 
contrary.  Not  being  able  to  convince  each  other, 
the  ferryman,  an  enlightened  Christian,  asked 
permission  to  give  his  opinion.  Consent  being 
granted,  he  said  :  "  I  hold  in  my  hands  two  oars. 
That  in  my  right  hand  I  call  '  faith,'  the  other,  in 
my  left,  *  works.'  Now,  gentlemen,  please  to 
observe,  I  pull  the  oar  of  faith,  and  pull  that 
alone.  See  !  the  boat  goes  round  and  round,  and 
the  boat  makes  no  progress.  I  do  the  same  with 
the  oar  of  works,  and  with  a  precisely  similar 
result — no  advance.  Mark  !  I  pull  both  together, 
we  go  on  apace,  and  in  a  very  few  minutes  we 
shall  be  at  our  landing-place.  So,  in  my  humble 
opinion,"  he  added,  "faith  without  works,  or 
works  without  faith,  will  not  suffice.  Let  there 
be  both,  and  the  haven  of  eternal  rest  is  sure  to 
be  reached." 


Vlt 

Temptations  of  the  Tongue. 

CHAPTER  III.,  I-18. 

FANATICISM  AND  THE  TONGUE. 

THE  fourth  form  of  temptation  is  presented 
in  the  third  chapter  :  ''Do  not  become  many 
of  you  teachers,  brethren  mine,  since  ye 
know  that  wc  shall  receive  heavier  judgment.  For, 
in  many  tilings  zve  all  stumble.  If  any  one  stum- 
ble not  in  wjrd,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  and 
able  also  to  bridle  the  tvhole  body.  Behold  into 
their  mouths  we  put  the  h  n'se-bits,  that  they  may 
become  obedient  unto  us,  and  we  turn  about  their 
whole  body.  Behold  also  the  ships,  zvhich  though 
they  may  be  so  great  and  are  driven  by  rough 
winds,  are  turned  about  by  a  very  small  rudder, 
whither  the  impulse  of  the  st.ersman  may  will ;  so 
the  tongue  also  is  a  little  member,  and  boasts 
greatly.  Behold  how  a  spark  kindles  a  great  forest. 
And  the  tongue  is  fire ;  that  world  of  iniquity  ! 
Thus  the  tongue  is  placed  among  our  members, 
which  stains  the  whole  body  and  sets  on  fire  tJie 
frame  of  nature  and  is  set  on  fire  of  hell.  For 
every  nature  of  wild  beasts,  and  of  flying  things 
and  of  creeping  things,  and  of  sea-monsters  is  sub- 
dued and  has  been   subdued  unto  human  nature ; 


152  The  Gospel  of  Coi:inioii  Senst. 

but  the  ton^iie  I'f  men  no  one  can  subdue — a  tur- 
bulent evil,  full  of  death-bearing  poison  ;  with  it 
tve  praise  God,  even  t'le  Father,  and  wit  hit  we  curse 
vie 71  made  in  the  image  of  God:  from  the  same 
in  >uth  come  forth  a  eulogy  and  a  curse.  No  neces- 
sity, my  brethren,  that  these  things  sho.  Id  be  so. 
Does  a  fountain  from  the  same  opening  send  forth 
S7veet  and  bitter  ?  Aly  brethren,  can  a  fig  tree  pro- 
duce olives,  or  a  vine  figs  f  So  cannot  salt  water 
yield  sweet!' 

In  urging  the  necessity  of  a  faith  which  gives 
demonstrations  of  its  existence  by  the  good 
works  of  humaneness  which  it  performs,  James 
seems  to  have  seen  that  the  Hebrew-Christians 
to  whom  this  epistle  was  primarily  addressed — 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  seems  to  have  seen  that 
those  who  should  read  the  epistle  in  subsequent 
ages — might  count  words  as  seeds,  as  in  one 
sense  they  really  are,  and  so  might  turn  from 
good  deeds  which  cost  something  to  words  which 
cost  nothing,  and  so  come  to  have  neither  an  in- 
ner life  of  faith  nor  outer  life  of  beneficence. 

The  Hebrew-Christians  to  whom  the  epistle 
was  addressed,  were  peculiarly  exposed  to  this 
temptation,  as  the  itch  for  teaching  was  prevalent 
among  the  Israelites  in  the  time  of  Jesus.  In  an 
apocryphal  book  entitled  "  The  Ascension  of 
Isaiah  the  Prophet,"  supposed  by  its  editor,  Dr. 
Lawrence,  to  have  been  written  near  the  be- 
ginning   of   the   propagation    of   the    Christian 


The  Gospd  of  Common  Sense.  153 

faith,  there  occur  these  words  (ch.  3  :  23,  24), 
in  a  passage  regarding  the  Messiah,  quoted  by- 
Barnes  :  "  In  those  days  shall  many  be  attached 
to  office,  destitute  of  wisdom  ;  multitudes  of  iniq- 
uitous elders  and  pastors,  injurious  to  their  flocks 
and  addicted  to  rapine,  nor  shall  the  holy  pastors 
themselves  diligently  discharge  their  duties." 

This  must  have  been  most  exasperatingly  true 
when  the  Christ  was  on  earth,  or  else  He  could 
nevei^  have  uttered  that  terrific  indictment  which 
fills  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  Matthew,  one  of 
the  most  fearful  passages  in  all  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, the  thunder-burst  of  whose  invective  closes 
with  that  shower  of  tenderness,  "  O  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets  and 
stonest  them  that  are  sent  unto  thee,  how  often 
would  I  have  gathered  thy  children  together, 
even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her 
wings,  and  ye  would  not  !  " 

THE   TONGUE   IN   PUBLIC. 

When  the  early  churches  were  formed,  the 
Hebrew-Christians  had  trouble  from  this  itch  of 
teaching,  which  led  so  many  incompetent  and 
improper  persons  to  undertake  teaching  and 
preaching.  Paul  found  "  false  apostles,  deceitful 
workers"  at  Corinth  (2  Cor.  11:  13);  "dogs, 
evil  workers,"  in  the  church  at  Philippi,  which 
he  so  loved  (Phil.  5:  2),  and  "  false  brethren"  in 
the  churches  of  Galatia  (Gal.  2).  He  warns  his 
young    brother    and   friend,    Timothy    (Tim.    i) 


i  54  The  Gospct  of  Common  Senst. 

against  such  as  had  "turned  aside  to  vain  jang- 
Hng,  desiring  to  be  teachers  of  the  law,  under- 
standing neither  what  they  say  nor  whereof  they 
affirm."  All  these  are  denounced,  in  the  last 
book  of  the  sacred  canon,  as  being  of  "the  syna- 
gogue of  Satan  "  (Rev.  2:  9). 

No  wonder,  then,  that  the  wise  James  gives 
special  attention  to  guarding  his  brethren  against 
becoming  conceited,  and,  having  neither  faith  nor 
works,  supposing  that  they  meet  the  require- 
ments of  religious  life  by  cultivating  a  dicta- 
torial speech,  and  putting  on  magisterial  airs. 

We  may  suppose,  first  of  all,  that  James  had 
reference  to  those  who  desired  to  enter  upon  the 
office  of  public  teachers,  and  whose  zeal  without 
knowledge  impelled  them  to  places  for  which 
they  were  not  prepared.  It  is  a  great  thing  to 
be  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  Every  Christian 
man  may  well  covet  it  as  one  of  the  best  gifts. 
The  earnest  desire  of  every  Christian  parent 
should  be  that  his  boys  may  be  church  ministers, 
and  his  daughters  become  the  wives  of  pastors. 
He  should  do  all  he  can  to  prepare  them  for 
these  positions,  if  such  be  the  will  of  God,  as 
indicated  by  His  providence.  They  will  not  all 
become  so  ;  but  a  preparation  of  spirit  for  the 
ministry  of  the  word  would  be  the  best  prepara- 
tion for  any  other  position  in  the  Church  ;  and 
the  Lord  would  lead  away  from  the  pulpit  to 
other  Christian  fields  all  conscientious  Christian 


The  Gospel  of  Co  111  moil  Sense.  155 

men  who  stood  ready  to  do  the  Lord's  will  every- 
where, and  who  selected  tiieir  positions  in  the 
Church  not  in  view  of  any  personal  and  worldy 
advantage,  but  in  view  of  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ. 

To  that  tribunal  we  are  pointed  by  the  word 
which  is  translated  "condemnation."  We  all 
"stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ" 
CRom.  14  :  10).  If  all  who  are  now  in  the  minis- 
try of  the  word,  when  deciding  what  course  to 
pursue,  had  placed  themselves  conscientiously  be- 
fore the  great  Judge,  to  learn  from  Him,  as  shall 
be  learned  at  the  last  judgment,  whether  they 
should  become  preachers,  may  we  not  in  all 
charity  suppose  that  there  are  many  now  preach- 
ing who  would  be  doing  much  more  for  Christ's 
work  in  the  world,  on  farms  and  wharves,  in 
shops  and  factories,  pleading  law  or  practising 
physic  .-* 

There  are  those  who  doubtless  will  be  swift  to 
give  an  affirmative  answer  to  that  question,  as 
there  are  many  who  are  very  ready  to  find  fault 
with  the  poverty  of  the  pulpit  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  may  not  the  question  be  put  pointedly  to 
such  persons,  and  to  thousands  of  other  men  in 
the  Church,  who  are  now  in  the  .wrong  business, 
whether,  if  all  worldly  considerations  had  been 
put  aside  and  they  had  settled  the  question  in 
the  light  of  the  Christ's  white  throne  of  judgment, 
they  would  not  now  be  preaching  the  truth  as  it 


156  Tlic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

is  in  Christ  with  power  surpassing  many  who  are 
accredited  teachers  of  the  word  ? 

In  any  case  the  place  of  teacher  is  to  be  as- 
sumed very  deliberately  and  conscientiously  in  the 
remembrance  that  he  who  receives  it  receives  a 
great  increase  of  responsibility  ;  and  if  he  fail  of 
his  duty,  a  greater  condemnation. 

THE  TONGUE  IN  PRIVATE. 

But  manifestly  we  should  not  confine  James's 
words  to  public  and  authorized  teachers.  They 
form  a  very  small  section  of  those  who  were  prob- 
ably in  the  mind  of  the  writer  whose  words  we 
are  studying.  There  was  a  disease  prevalent  in 
the  Church  in  the  days  of  James,  which,  in  many 
places,  is  a  raging  epidemic  in  our  own  times.  It 
is  an  internal  disease  discovered  by  its  eruption, 
which  appears  ordinarily  on  the  tongue,  and  some- 
times on  the  right  hand  that  holds  pen  or  pencil. 
It  proves  the  presence,  in  the  afflicted  individual, 
of  miich-teachingness,  a  disposition  to  be  always 
taking  the  chair,  much  given  to  finding  fault, 
correcting,  playing  the  censor,  putting  on  profes- 
sional airs,  having  an  opinion  on  every  subject, 
with  great  readiness  to  give  it  dogmatically,  dic- 
tatorially,  pontifically,  as  being  paramount,  final, 
infallible,  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 

Almost  every  one  must  have  noticed  displays 
of  this  in  social  and  business  circles,  and  in  re- 
ligious assemblies,  whether  met  for  counsel  or 
worship.     It  is  a  dangerous  and  hurtful  habit,  to 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  157 

be  corrected  by  those  who  have  formed  it  and  to 
be  avoided  by  those  who  have  not. 

THE   GREAT   RESPONSIBILITY. 

Against  it  James  warns  us,  first,  by  the  great 
responsibility  taken  by  its  indulgence.  If  we  as- 
sume to  know  enough  to  teach,  we  can  never 
plead  ignorance  when  we  are  called  to  account. 
If  we  should  make  a  mistake,  our  assumption 
of  superior  knowledge  will  probably  lead  many 
astray,  and  so  render  our  lives  increasingly  in- 
jurious. That  is  the  first  reason  for  not  rushing 
into  the  teacher's  responsibility.  Another  is, 
that  we  all  make  mistakes.  James  is  very 
modest.  He  does  not  unnecessarily  condemn 
himself.  The  "  we "  is  conciliatory.  He  is  ad- 
dressing his  brethren.  He  remembers  that  he 
himself  is  not  faultless.  A  study  of  one's  own 
manifold  frailties  of  character  and  temper  should 
make  one  very  careful  in  reviewing  what  seems 
to  be  the  faults  of  others,  and  in  sitting  in  judg- 
ment upon  them.  Especially  should  it  guard  us 
against  utterance  of  criticism  and  judgment. 
dangers  of  the  tongue. 

This  naturally  leads  to  a  consideration  of  the 
dangers  of  the  tongue,  and  the  evils  produced  by 
much  speaking.  There  is  no  member  of  the  hu- 
man body  so  important  as  the  tongue  :  nor  hand, 
nor  foot,  nor  ear,  nor  eye.  With  nothing  can  we 
do  so  much  good  and  so  much  evil.  When  a 
certain  ancient  king  sent  an  animal  to  be  offered 


158  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

to  the  gods,  he  requested  that  the  best  and  the 
worst  should  be  returned  to  him,  and  the  wise 
priest  sent  the  tongue  of  the  victim  back  to  the 
king. 

The  heathen  philosopher  Xanthus,  expecting 
some  friends  to  dine  with  him,  ordered  his  ser- 
vant iEsop  to  provide  the  best  things  the  market 
could  supply.  Tongues  only  were  provided  ;  and 
these  the  cook  was  ordered  to  serve  up  with  dif- 
ferent sauces.  Course  after  course  was  supplied, 
each  consisting  of  tongue.  "  Did  I  not  order 
you,"  said  Xanthus,  in  a  violent  passion,  "  to  buy 
the  best  victuals  the  market  afforded?"  "And 
have  I  not  obeyed  your  orders.''"  said  ^Esop. 
"  Is  there  anything  better  than  a  tongue  .-*  Is 
not  the  tongue  the  bond  of  civil  society,  the  or- 
gan of  truth  and  reason,  and  the  instrument  of 
our  praise  and  adoration  of  the  gods.''"  Xanthus 
ordered  him  to  go  again  to  the  market  on  the 
morrow,  and  buy  the  worst  things  he  could  find, 
.^sop  went,  and  again  he  purchased  tongues, 
which  the  cook  was  ordered  to  serve  as  before. 
"  What  !  tongues  again  .''  "  exclaimed  Xanthus. 
"Most  certainly,"  rejoined  ^sop  ;  "the  tongue 
is  surely  the  worst  thing  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
instrument  of  all  strife  and  contention,  the  in- 
ventor of  lawsuits,  and  the  source  of  division  and 
wars  ;  it  is  the  organ  of  error,  of  lies,  calumny 
and  blasphemies." 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  159 

THE  MENTAL  TUBERCLE. 
Speech  is  the  great  good  gift.  There  is  a  little 
gland,  found  only  in  the  human  species,  called 
the  mental  tubercle.  No  animal  without  that  can 
speak.  It  is  present  only  with  the  animal  which 
thinks.  What  cannot  think  cannot  speak.  The 
ancient  Greeks,  by  using  the  same  word  for  speech 
and  thought,  seem  to  have  anticipated  this  later 
discovery  ;  and  the  modern  German  was  as  wise 
as  he  was  witty  when  he  said,  "  I  will  believe 
that  any  animal  thinks  when  he  tells  me  so." 

So  close  is  this  connection  that  James  says  that 
any  man  who  neither  stumbles  in  his  speech  nor 
causes  any  one  else  to  stumble,  is  a  perfect  man  ; 
for  the  reason  that  he  must  be  able  to  control  his 
whole  person  if  he  have  perfect  control  over  his 
tongue.  And  this  will  be  manifest  if  we  consider 
the  following : 

(i)  That  the  tongue  is  the  organ  for  the  utter- 
ance of  thoughts  and  emotions.  That  good  and 
not  evil  may  come,  that  the  utterance  may  be 
sweet  and  not  bitter,  there  must  be  such  control 
of  the  head  and  heart  as  that  the  bitter  bad  will 
be  held  back  in  the  soul  and  the  sweet  good  will 
be  sent  forward  to  the  tongue. 

(2)  That  the  thought  and  emotion,  until  the 
tongue  give  them  utterance,  can  do  no  harm  out- 
side ourselves.  Before  utterance  they  may  be  re- 
vised, corrected,  changed  ;  but  once  uttered,  they 
belong  no  more  to  us.     The  tongue  is  the  Rubi- 


i6o  The  Gospel  of  Coniuion  Sense. 

con  of  thought.  It  is  the  tongue  that  gives  life 
and  power  for  good  or  evil  to  the  thoughts  of 
men. 

(3)  That  the  reaction  of  speech  is  important. 
A  man  may  speak  so  as  to  soothe  himself  and  in- 
crease his  own  reasonableness,  meekness,  and 
sweetness  ;  or,  he  may  lash  himself  into  fury  and 
talk  wildly  until  he  becomes  wild.  We  have 
spoken  before  of  the  effect  of  the  tones  of  the 
voice  on  the  temper.  A  quarrel  cannot  be  carried 
on  in  dulcet  tone. 

(4)  That  the  words  of  a  man  are  the  indices  of 
his  character.  Having  no  other  knowledge  of  a 
man,  if  all  he  had  said  and  written  could  be  made 
known  to  any  intelligent  being,  that  person  could 
form  a  fair  estimate  of  the  man's  character  with- 
out any  knowledge  whatever  of  his  acts.  Men 
cannot  see  into  each  other's  hearts  and  minds  for 
evidence  of  character  ;  they  have  only  what  the  in- 
ner man  sends  forth.  In  one  sense  our  words  always 
represent  us  fairly  ;  we  are  mistaken  if  we  think 
they  do  not.  "I  did  not  mean  that"  may  be  said 
when  one  has  misrepresented  our  words  ;  but  in 
the  case  where  the  words  are  accurately  reported 
as  they  were  uttered,  they  either  conveyed  our 
meaning  exactly  or  they  correctly  represent  our 
inability  at  the  moment  to  select  the  word  befit- 
ting our  thought.  He  who  knows  all  that  is  in 
the  mind  of  God  and  in  the  mind  of  men,  uttered 
a  profound  and  tremendous   truth  when  He  said, 


77^1?  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  i6i 

"  By  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified  and  by  thy 
words  thou  shalt  be  condemned  "  (Matt.  12:37). 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  He  assigned  this  as 
the  ground  of  His  assertion,  "  that  every  idle 
word  that  men  speak,  they  shall  give  account 
thereof  in  the  day  of  judgment."  So,  to  make  a 
full  and  perfect  estimate  of  a  man's  character, 
there  must  not  be  omitted  one  single,  solitary, 
slightest  word  that  ever  drops  from  his  life  or  his 
pen.  They  must  all  be  gathered  by  the  great 
Estwtator  in  making  final  judgment  on  the  man's 
character. 

And  we  are  never  to  forget  that,  whatever  im- 
portance is  to  be  attached  to  either  words  or 
deeds  in  this  world,  in  that  other  state  of  exist- 
ence, upon  which  we  are  to  enter  at  death, 
character  is  everything.  As  a  man  speaks  so  are 
his  thoughts,  and  "as  he  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so 
is  he"  (Prov.  13  :  7). 

A   PERFECT   MAN. 

In  view  of  all  these  truths,  how  thoroughly  is 
our  author  justified  in  taking  the  ground,  that 
when  a  man  shows  perfect  control  over  his 
tongue  he  has  control  over  his  head,  and  his 
heart,  and  his  whole  personality. 

This  may  seem  to  be  a  great  thing  to  say  to 
so  small  a  member  as  the  tongue.  But  the 
writer  of  this  epistle  sustains  the  position,  not  by 
any  arguments  drawn  from  metaphysics,  but  by 
illustrations  appealing  to  our  common  sense, 


l62  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

(i)  From  animate  things  he  selects  the  horse. 
It  is  a  powerful  animal.  A  horse's  bit  is  a 
small  thing,  and  yet  when  put  in  the  unruly 
horse's  mouth,  we  can  control  him  better  there- 
with than  if  he  had  much  harness  fastened  to 
every  limb,  and  worked  by  much  machinery.  So, 
he  who  controls  his  tongue  controls  his  naturally 
unruly  body. 

(2)  From  inanimate  objects  he  selects  the 
ships.  A  ship  is  vast  ;  not  being  unruly  as  the 
horse  is,  it  is,  however,  driven  by  fierce  winds. 
What  a  great  power  would  be  required  to  pull  it 
against  the  face  of  the  storm.  In  our  day  there 
is  an  immense  steamship  called  the  Great  Eastern. 
A  force  applied  from  without  to  change  its  posi- 
tion, would  be  that  of  many  thousands  of  horse- 
power ;  and  yet,  when  that  huge  mass  of  ma- 
terial and  machinery  is  beaten  upon  by  winds, 
travelling  at  the  rate  of  many  miles  an  hour,  a  lit- 
tle rudder  changes  its  direction  or  holds  it  to  its 
course.  One  single  small  man  at  the  helm  can 
so  work  the  machinery  that  his  rudder  will  in- 
stantly change  the  position  of  a  vast  hulk,  which 
a  thousand  men  could  not  budge. 

The  tongue  is  like  that  horse  and  needs  the 
"bit,"  and  like  that  ship  and  needs  the  "rudder." 
"  It  rears  and  charges  like  a  proud  horse,"  seems 
to  be  the  meaning  of  jAMES,  when  he  says  that 
it  "boasts  greatly."  And  well  it  may.  More 
than  sceptres  and  swords,  more  than    bayonets 


TJic  Gospel  of  Coniuion  Sense.  163 

and  cannon,  more  than  steam  and  electriciv./,  is 
one  single  human  tongue.  This  day,  while  I  write 
(29  March,  1889),  there  is  one  tongue  in  Europe, 
in  a  poor,  sick  mouth, whose  sweet  utterances  are 
keeping  Europe  in  Easter  peace.  A  hundred 
words  from  that  tongue  would,  in  a  hundred 
hours,  change  the  values  of  all  properties  in 
Christendom,  and  in  a  hundred  days  array  mil- 
lions of  human  beings  in  hostility,  and  change 
the  face  of  affairs  in  all  the  continents  and  islands 
of  the  world.  May  not  a  member  which  can  do 
such  great  things,  boast  itself  of  great  things.^ 
THE  TONGUE  AND  THE  PEN. 
We  are  never  to  forget  the  "  tongue  "  includes 
the  "  pen."  No  creature  writes  that  does  not 
think,  and  no  creature  thinks  that  cannot  talk,  if 
its  organs  be  perfect.  It  is  not  the  mere  instru- 
mental tongue  or  instrumental  pen.  It  is  the 
word.  Words  are  things,  as  much  as  bullets  and 
daggers,  and  often  are  just  as  killing.  Once,  a 
New  York  paper  gave  an  account  of  the  terrible 
fall  of  a  very  beautiful  woman.  There  was  no 
reason  of  justice,  or  mercy,  or  public  utility,  or 
private  help,  to  be  had  by  publishing  the  facts, 
with  the  names,  but  they  were  startlingly  sensa- 
tional. That  woman's  widowed  mother,  who,  in 
a  distant  land,  had  reared  a  large  family  most  re- 
spectably, whose  other  children  are  doing  well, 
received  a  marked  copy  of  the  paper,  detailing 
sickeningly  the  degradation  of  her  child,  and  in  a 


164  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense, 

day  that  mother  became  a  lunatic,  and  a  whole 
circle  were  made  to  suffer  under  the  redoubled 
blows  of  the  affliction.  The  reporter  whocaug^ht 
up  that  morsel  of  scandal,  and  the  publisher  of 
that  paper  who  unnecessarily  paraded  it  to  the 
world,  and  the  person  who  sent  that  marked 
copy  to  the  poor  mother,  are  guilty  before  God 
for  that  old  lady's  lunacy  and  the  many  heart- 
breaks that  followed. 

It  may  be  well  to  notice  especially  the  case  of  the 
person  sending  the  marked  copy.  There  are  people 
who  are  never  heard  to  make  vocal  utterances  that 
damage  or  even  disparage  others,  who  neverthe- 
less fancy  it  no  harm  to  send  anonymous  notes 
injuring  the  reputation  of  others,  provided  they 
be  persuaded  that  what  they  state  is  the  fact, 
or  to  send  a  marked  article  in  a  paper  which 
they  know  will  give  pain,  supposing  that  the 
writer  is  responsible  for  the  truth  of  the  state- 
ment. It  is  proper  that  such  persons  should  be 
taught  the  common-sense  morality  of  Christianity. 

First  of  all,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  that  while 
it  is  ahuays  wrong  to  tell  a  lie  for  any  purpose,  it 
is  not  always  right  to  utter  a  truth.  Indeed,  it  is 
a  question  whether  it  is  not  always  wrong  to 
utter  any  truth  without  any  purpose.  We  are 
always  to  "  speak  the  truth  in  love  "  (Eph.  4  :  15). 
Whatever  we  speak,  or  otherwise  publish,  must 
be  truth.  But,  what  we  know  as  truth,  is  to 
be  published  or  communicated  to  another  only 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  165 

for^reasons  prompted  by  our  love  for  God  or  for 
man.  If  my  duty  to  any  fellow-creature  demand 
my  utterance  of  anything  that  is  true,  I  must 
utter  it,  although  the  wrong-doer  suffer  thereby. 
The  same  holds  good  when  my  sense  of  duty  to 
the  public  is  concerned. 

A  publisher's  responsibility. 

The  publisher  of  a  journal  is  bound  to  announce 
the  wrong  of  any  official,  when  it  becomes  cer- 
tified to  him.  This  duty  is  created  by  his  patriot- 
ism. But  if  he  make  the  charge  without  knoiving 
it  to  be  true,  he  is  a  liar  and  a  slanderer.  He 
does  not  become  less  a  liar  and  a  slanderer,  if  it 
afterward  turn  out  that  the  damaging  allegation 
was  true.  He  intended  to  publish  it,  true  or  false. 
True  or  false  as  the  statement  may  be,  he  is  as 
guilty  as  the  author.  He  would  have  invented  it 
if  he  could.  He  "  took  up  a  reproach  against  his 
neighbor"  (Ps.  15:3).  Invention  requires  some 
genius  ;  any  fool  can  convey  a  slander. 

But  the  statements  of  social  conversation  and 
of  the  press  sometimes  concern  private  indi- 
viduals. Then  we  have  no  right  to  publish  the 
wrongs  we  know,  unless  compelled  thereto  by 
the  law  of  justice  or  the  law  of  benevolence.  If 
I  see  that  a  man  whom  I  know  to  be  a  seducer, 
is  making  advances  to  the  daughter  of  another 
man,  I  am  bound  to  go  to  the  father  and  furnish 
him  the  facts  in  my  possession.     But  I  must  not 


l66  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

go  to  others  and  say  "Isn't  it  a  pity  that  Mr, 
A.  lets  that  Mr.  B.  wait  on  his  daughter,  when  B. 
is  such  a  licentious  man  ? "  I  have  no  right  to 
slander  Mr.  A.  by  supposing  that  he.  knowingly 
exposes  his  daughter's  morals  to  danger.  I  have 
no  right  to  soil  the  good  name  of  the  innocent 
Miss  A.,  who  may  thus  always  thereafter  be  in- 
jured by  being  known  as  "that  girl  who  had 
something  to  do  with  that  dirty  Mr.  B." 

Little  as  against  great  !  A  spark  is  so  small 
beside  a  hundred  acres  of  pine  forest  that  no  frac- 
tional expression  can  impart  an  idea  of  the  com- 
parison. And  yet,  a  spark  dropped  from  a  man's 
pipe  has  destroyed  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
valuable  trees.  And  the  tongue  is  a  fire,  and  a 
word  is  a  spark.  Is  the  world  vast .-'  The  tongue 
of  man  is  a  world.  It  can  say  all  that  all  the 
world  can  think.  It  can  describe  all  that  all  the 
world  has  done  or  can  do.  It  is  the  tongue  that 
directs  the  world.  It  is  what  men  say  which 
governs  what  men  do.  There  is  so  much  evil  in 
the  organ  of  speech  that  it  is  well  called  "a 
world  of  iniquity." 

More  evil  has  been  done  by  the  tongue  than 
by  all  man's  other  organs  and  members.  When 
the  heart  is  not  right,  when  it  is  like  those  mirrors 
which  distort  every  object  presented,  then  the 
tongue  multiplies  the  copies  of  the  deformed 
image,  and  society  is  filled  with  uglinesses. 


The  Gospel  of  Conuiioji  Sense.  \6y 

SATAN'S  TONGUE. 

Satan  knows  that  if  he  could  rule  every  tongue 
he  would  rule  the  world.  He  does  his  mischief 
by  his  tongue.  No  man  probably  ever  sees  or 
feels  him  with  the  hand.  But  he  kills  many  a 
man.  He  has  no  dagger,  no  spear,  no  sword,  no 
gun.  But  he  has  a  tongue,  and  God  declares  that 
he  is  a  murderer  and  a  liar.  And  that  he  may 
make  murderers  and  liars,  he  sets  men's  tongues 
on  fire.  He  murders  with  his  lying  tongue,  and 
men  and  women  similarly  commit  murder.  Yes, 
"and  women."  Sometimes,  words  that  blister, 
and  bite,  and  kill,  fall  from  beautiful  lips,  whose 
honey-sweetness  conceals  tongues  "full,"  as  our 
author  says,  "of  death-bearing  poison."  And 
those  words  kill  as  surely  as  if  spit  from  between 
the  snaggled  teeth  of  an  obscene  old  witch. 

When  inflamed,  the  wicked  tongue  does  two 
things,  (i)  It  hurts  the  evil  speaker.  It  reacts 
upon  him,  increasing  his  envy,  jealousy,  hatred 
or  whatever  evil  passion  prompted  the  bad 
speech.  No,  sir,  you  are  mistaken  if  you  think 
to  destroy  your  neighbor  by  your  tongue  and 
escape  unharmed  yourself.  No,  madam,  you 
cannot  deliberately  smirch  your  sister's  reputa- 
tion, however  bad  a  woman  she  may  be,  with- 
out making  yourself  a  worse  woman.  Perhaps 
those  very  facts  in  her  history  which  you  are 
using  to  her  injury  may  not  be  so  bad,  nor  in- 
spired by  so  vicious  a  spirit  as  that  temper  which 


1 68  Tlic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

prompts  you  to  go  about,  scattering  damaging 
reports  concerning  her.  At  any  rate,  every  un- 
kind speech  leaves  the  speaker  worse.  Not 
causelessly  did  the  wise  Solomon  say,  "Suffer 
not  thy  mouth  to  cause  thy  flesh  to  sin  "  (Eccles. 
5:6), 

(2)  It  hurts  others.  It  arouses  suspicions 
against  them.  It  blocks  up  the  way  of  their  re- 
turn to  virtue  if  they  be  bad.  If  they  be  inno- 
cent it  tries  and  condemns  them  without  a  hear- 
ing. What  is  said  against  a  man  in  his  absence 
he  cannot  disprove.  He  knows  nothing  of  it. 
He  might  be  able  to  exculpate  himself  thoroughly 
if  he  heard  the  allegation.  But  he  is  cut  off  from 
that  right.  An  evil  report  against  a  person  may 
spread  a  long  time  without  his  knowledge.  Peo- 
ple who  look  at  him  suspiciously,  may  innocently 
misinterpret  the  actions  they  see,  and  thus  have 
their  suspicions  confirmed.  It  is  well  known  that 
if  the  man  with  the  healthiest  mind  among  men 
should  go  to  a  small  town  in  which  all  the  in- 
habitants believed  him  insane,  the  simplest  and 
most  natural  actions  would  seem  to  them  con- 
firmations of  the  theory  of  his  insanity. 

And,  then,  such  things  spread,  like  a  fire  which 
the  Indians  used  to  kindle  on  the  prairies,  when 
a  spark  from  flint  and  steel  would  sweep  through 
the  dry  grass  so  fiercely  and  so  rapidly,  that  men 
and  horses  were  compelled  to  flee  for  their  lives 
over  weary  miles  or  fall  and  perish  in  the  flames. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  169 

THE  ONE  UNTAMABLE  THING. 

How  untamable  is  the  tongue  !  It  began  in 
Eden.  It  has  been  at  its  dreadful  work  of  utter- 
ing filth,  lies,  and  slanders  ever  since.  Men  have 
tamed  lions,  and  tigers,  and  wolves,  birds  of  prey 
and  poisonous  snakes,  and  even  the  fish  of  the 
sea — but  "  the  tongue  of  men  hath  no  man  sub- 
dued." Why  can  it  not  be  done  ^  Because  it  is 
the  "tongue  of  men,"  the  human  tongue;  because 
it  is  not  mere  animal's.  Human  nature  can  sub- 
due animal  nature,  but  who  is  to  subdue  the 
devilish  nature,  when  it  takes  possession  of  human 
nature  .'*  The  tongue  can  never  be  subdued  ;  to 
be  useful,  it  must  be  made  the  organ  of  a  re- 
newed, regenerated,  transformed  spirit.  In  itself 
it  is  an  "  unrestrainable  evil,  full  of  death-bearing 
poison." 

RELIGIOUS  USES  OF  THE  TONGUE. 

And  SO  James  leads  us  to  think  of  the  religious 
use  of  the  tongue,  and  the  protest  which  religion 
makes  against  slander.  The  existence  of  the 
gift  of  speech,  together  with  its  restriction  to  man 
and  its  connection  with  the  capability  of  reason- 
ing, is  a  very  powerful  theistic  argument.  For 
such  a  gift  men  should  be  naturally  grateful. 
And  there  can  be  nothing  found  by  which  men 
can  praise  God  for  the  gift  of  the  tongue  but  the 
tongue  itself.  How  great,  therefore,  is  the  sin, 
when  the  tongue  is  used  to  insult  God.  Nothing  is 
so  dear  to  God  as  man.    There  is  no  man  on  earth, 


170  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

however  low,  who  is  not  dearer  to  God  than  any 
angel,  for  no  angel  is  His  child,  and  God,  who  has 
been  "found  in  fashion  as  a  man,"  has  never  worn 
angelic  nature.  So,  he  who  slanders  or  curses  a 
man,  insults  God,  as  he  who  spits  upon  the  statue 
of  the  Emperor,  insults  the  majesty  of  the  Empire. 
There  is  no  necessity  for  those  things.  All 
nature  is  against  them.  From  a  fountain  must 
issue  fresh  water  or  salt.  Any  saltness,  how- 
ever little,  spoils  the  freshness.  Any  bitterness 
of  speech  spoils  the  stream  which  proceeds  out 
of  the  heart  through  the  mouth.  The  drink  is 
not  wholesome,  although  there  be  but  one  drop 
of  poison  to  a  pint  of  the  purest  water  that  ever 
welled  up  from  the  clearest  spring  through  bowl 
of  granite  rock.  There  is  no  double-dealing  in 
nature.  It  would  be  idle  to  seek  olives  on  a  fig 
tree  or  figs  on  a  grape-vine.  We  should  not  ex- 
pect to  find  a  devil's  fruit  on  a  God's  tree  !  This 
thing  would  not  be,  if  every  man  gave  his  life 
wholly  to  the  service  of  God.  The  sweetened 
heart  would  make  the  language  sweet,  and  every 
speech  uttered  regarding  man  would  sound  in 
echo  like  a  shout  to  God. 

SOURCE  OF  THE  EVIL. 
Having  so  forcibly  pointed  out  the  evils  of  an 
unruly  tongue,  James  indicates  the  sources  of 
that  evil  in  the  bad  passions  of  the  human  heart 
which  incite  men  to  desire  to  be  considered  wiser 
than  they  are.     This  naturally  leads  to  envy,  and 


The  Gospel  of  Coinuwn  Sense.  i/t 

that  to  malice.  Wisdovi  is  to  be  desired,  not  the 
mere  reputation  of  wisdom.  And  there  is  a  true 
wisdom  and  a  false.  And  our  author  makes  a 
contrast  between  them  in  their  origin,  their  char- 
acteristics, and  their  effects.  These  are  his 
words  (chap.  3  :  13-18) :  "  Who  is  wise  and  in- 
telligent among  yon  ?  Let  him  shozv  ont  of  a  good 
life  his  ivorks  in  meekness  of  zvisdom.  But  if  you 
have  bitter  zeal  and  party-spirit  in  your  heart,  do 
not  boast,  and  do  not  be  against  the  truth.  This  is 
not  that  zvisdom  coming  doiun  from  above,  but  is 
earthly,  sensuous,  demoniacal.  For  where  jealousy 
and  party-spirit,  there  anarchy  and  every  foul 
deed.  But  the  wisdom  from  above  is  first  hallowed, 
then  peaceable,  reasonable,  persuadable,  full  of  com- 
passion and  good  fruits,  not  sectarian,  not  hypo- 
critical. And  the  fruit  of  righteousness  in  peace 
is  sown  by  them  that  make  peace.'' 

In  studying  the  epistle  now  before  us,  we  are 
to  bear  in  mind  that  it  was  addressed  to  Hebrew- 
Christians,  to  persons  who  had  been  Jews  at  a 
fanatical  period  of  Jewish  history,  and  who  still 
must  have  retained  much  of  the  violent  spirit  of 
their  old  associations,  and  who  had  not  yet  been 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  our  Lord.  This  will  ex- 
plain the  tenor  of  the  letter,  and  the  form  of  its 
phraseology,  and  not  deprive  us  of  those  les- 
sons in  morality  which  we  are  seeking  from  its 
pregnant  sentences  and  phrases. 


172  The  Gospel  of  Covinwn  Sense. 

Our  author's  advice  regarding  the  selection  of 
public  teachers  is,  that  a  man  shall  have  wisdom, 
intelligence  and  usefulness.  The  absence  of  any- 
one of  these  from  his  life  should  be  considered 
fatal  to  his  claims  for  so  high,  so  responsible,  so 
important  an  office  as  that  of  teacher.  Has  he 
gifts  .'*  Has  he  grace .''  Has  he  fruit .''  These 
are  the  three  questions. 

"  WISDOM   AND   KNOWLEDGE." 

It  must  be  observed  that  there  is  a  difference 
between  wisdom  and  knowledge.  One  is  natural, 
the  other  acquired  ;  one  comes  from  God,  the 
other  from  man.  A  man  who  is  not  wise  cannot 
acquire  wisdom  by  his  own  exertions  ;  but  any 
man  can  become  learned,  if  he  have  industry  and 
memory.  A  man  may  be  wise  and  unlearned  ; 
a  man  may  be  learned  and  be  a  fool.  Wisdom 
is  as  superior  to  learning  as  the  man  who  is  both 
architect  and  builder  is  superior  to  the  materials 
which  he  uses.  But  as  those  materials  are  neces- 
sary to  the  builder,  so  is  learning  to  a  wise  man. 
Therefore,  he  who  is  truly  wise  will  industriously 
seek  to  obtain  all  knowledge  within  his  reach. 
No  man  to  whom  God  has  given  wisdom  despises 
learning.  He  can  do  little  without  it.  It  is  that 
with  which  he  is  to  make  his  life-work.  The 
very  first  motion  of  wisdom  in  a  man,  is  to  "get 
understanding,"  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of  things. 
From  the  very  first  these  two  were  required  in 
those  who  were  to  rule  and  lead  in  the  Church  of 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  173 

God.  Moses  called  upon  the  Israelities  to  choose 
men  who  were  (i)  wise,  (2)  intelligent,  and  (3) 
known  ;  and  such  men  he  would  appoint  to  be 
their  rulers  (Deut.  i  :  13).  The  basis  of  all  is 
wisdom,  the  implement  of  wisdom  is  intelli- 
gence, and  the  result  of  the  combination  will 
produce  that  which  makes  a  man  known  among 
his  fellows. 

It  is  idle  for  a  man  to  undertake  to  prove  that 
he  is  wise.  He  may  declaim  and  argue.  But 
what  has  he  do?ie  ?  When  the  country  needs  a 
chief  magistrate,  a  candidate  being  a  great  orator 
is  almost  no  recommendation  !  What  has  he 
done?  is  the  natural  question.  What  great 
measure  of  statesmanship  has  he  originated,  or 
conspicuously  forwarded,  or  consummated  .-*  If 
none  of  these  exist,  no  gift  of  speech,  no  mag- 
netism of  manner,  no  shrewd  political  combina- 
tions will  avail  to  advance  his  claim.  And  if 
there  exist  in  his  history  those  fruits  which  are 
the  product  of  wisdom  and  intelligence,  and  of 
wisdom  and  intelligence  only,  they  will  be  seen, 
and  make  him  known.  The  more  men  talk 
againsl  his  good  deeds  the  more  conspicuous  will 
those  good  deeds  become. 

James,  therefore,  intimates  that  if  a  man  is 
to  be  selected  for  wisdom,  he  cannot  make  mani- 
fest that  wisdom  by  an  argument  to  prove  its 
existence,  but  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  show  from  a 
good  life,  a  life  of  truth,  fidelity  and  beneficence, 


174  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

that  he  has  so  used  what  he  has  acquired  as  to 
adapt  all  objects  in  his  control  to  their  intended 
end.  Not  only  by  words  but  by  works  let  the 
world  see  his  wisdom,  not  only  in  one  field  but  in 
all  fields,  not  only  on  one  side  of  his  character, 
but  on  all  sides  let  all  who  know  anything  of 
him  know  that  it  is  good,  and  let  him  not  parade 
this,  let  him  show  no  exultation  when  it  is  dis- 
covered nor  distressful  disappointment  when  it  is 
neglected,  and  by  that  very  meekness  men  will 
be  sure  that  he  has  wisdom.  Meekness  may  not 
always  be  wise,  but  wisdom  is  always  meek.  So 
the  really  wise  man  who  is  meek  impresses  us  as 
being  more  trustworthy  than  the  violent,  arro- 
gant, and  dictatorial  person,  who  is  always  striv- 
ing to  secure  the  reputation  of  being  wise. 

So  we  are  turned  in  upon  our  hearts.  If  we 
have  bitter  zeal,  such  a  partisan  spirit  as  will 
allow  no  good  on  the  other  side,  a  spirit  of  con- 
tentious ambition,  we  need  not  attempt  to  se- 
cure our  ends  by  boasting  of  our  qualifications 
for  the  part  of  public  teacher  ;  our  very  spirit 
would  show  how  devoid  we  are  of  such  qualifica- 
tions. A  man  lies  against  the  truth  when  he 
seeks  any  station  of  responsible  trust  and  influ- 
ence which  he  knows  he  would  never  obtain  if 
everyone  knew  the  whole  truth  as  to  his  char- 
acter and  history. 

TWO   WISDOMS. 
Do  you  call  that  wisdom  which  is  so  fierce,  so 
vindictive  ^     It  is  such  wisdom  as  man  may  ac- 


The  Gospel  of  Coinnwn  Sense.  1/5 

quire,  but  it  is  not  real  wisdom  ;  it  has  not  come 
as  God's  gift,  but  as  Satan's  training  in  civil  life. 
It  makes  a  man  smart,  sharp,  cunning  ;  in  civil  life 
it  may  make  him  a  politician,  but  not  a  statesman  ; 
it  may  make  him  an  agitator  in  the  Church,  but 
not  a  leader  and  a  helper.  It  is  not  from  above. 
It  is  from  beneath.  It  may  win  the  admiration  of 
slender  wits  and  malicious  spirits,  but  it  will  not 
secure  the  respect  of  the  good  and  the  intelli- 
gent. It  is  earthly,  sensuous,  demoniacal.  It  has 
no  principle,  no  motive,  no  end,  beyond  this  pres- 
ent world.  It  has  its  rise  in  the  animal  nature 
of  man,  by  which  he  is  akin  to  the  snake  and  the 
tiger  ;  and  finds  its  most  desired  result  in  the 
gratification  of  the  lust  of  the  eye,  the  lust  of 
the  flesh,  and  the  pride  of  life.  Its  inspiration  is 
that  of  all  evil  spirits,  pride,  which  is  the  damna- 
tion of  Satan  (i  Tim.  3  :  6),  and  which  betrays  the 
soul  into  maliciousness  and  makes  it  the  accuser 
of  the  brethren.  Let  all  censorious  people  re- 
member that  the  devil  gets  his  name  from  being 
the  accuser  of  the  brethren  (Rev.  12  :  10).  Such 
a  one  is  not  the  archangel  Michael,  who  might 
have  brought  many  a  truthful  accusation  against 
the  devil ;  but  even  in  contest  with  Diabolus, 
Michael  would  not  say  what  might  bring  him  on 
a  level  with  the  worst  spirit  in  the  universe. 
(Jude,  9). 

THE  WISDOM  FROM  ABOVE. 
With  this  wisdom,  which  is  only  cunning,  which 
is  earthly,  sensuous,  infernal,  which  Js  anarchigal 


176  TJie  Gospel  of  Coinuion  Sense. 

and  destructive,  James  contrasts  that  other  wis- 
dom, the  real  and  worthy  wisdom. 

Its  origin  is  different.  It  is  from  above.  It 
comes  down  from  the  Father  of  lights  and  of 
spirits  (i  :  17).  The  devil  never  inspires  it  ;  he 
could  not.  It  is  not  gained  from  man  ;  he  has  it 
not.  It  is  God's  direct  gift.  It  must  be  sought 
from  Him  (i  :  5).  He  gives  it.  It  is  such  a  gift 
as  He  bestows  on  archangels.  Against  the  three 
lines  describing  devilish  cunning,  eartJily,  SENSU- 
OUS, DEMONIAC,  are  set  these  seven  colors  of 
the  light  of  wisdom,  as  they  come  out  through 
the  prism  of  the  sanctified  common-sense  of  the 
brother  of  Him  in  whom  they  blended,  and  shone, 
and  glowed,  until  man  saw  the  splendor  of  God 
in  the  beautiful  life  of  the  White  Christ. 
ITS  CHARACTERISTICS. 

(l)  It  is  hallowed.  On  the  spirit  of  man  who 
has  it  there  has  fallen  a  sacred  hush,  as  on  a 
temple  which  a  god  inhabits.  Its  precincts  are 
consecrated  to  worship.  All  desecrating  prin- 
ciples, maxims,  thoughts,  purposes  are  excluded. 
It  has  no  doubtful  expedients  and  utters  no 
words  of  double-meaning.  It  is  clear,  because  it 
has  been  clarified.  It  is  open  to  heaven  and 
earth  without  concealments.  It  is  chaste,  seek- 
ing no  unholy  pleasures. 

We  should  lose  much  if  we  failed  to  notice  that 
the  first  line  in  this  spectrum  has  reference  to 
the  heart.     Men  so  often  begin  their  notions  of 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  lyj 

religion  as  if  it  had  something'  to  do  primarily 
with  the  head,  making  a  system  of  orthodox 
theology  stand  for  an  experience  of  true  religion; 
whereas,  glorious  as  the  true  science  of  theology 
is,  a  man  may  be  a  very  wise  man  and  most  pro- 
foundly religious  before  he  has  so  much  as  heard 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  science  called 
theology.  The  seat  of  true  wisdom  is  in  the 
heart.  With  the  head  (the  intellect)  man  believes 
to  science,  that  is,  understanding  ;  but  with  the 
heart  (the  emotional  part  of  his  nature)  man  be- 
lieves to  religion,  that  is,  zuisdom.  Paul  never 
uttered  a  profounder  philosophical  truth  than 
when  he  said,  "  With  the  heart  man  believeth 
unto  righteousness"  (Romans  io:io).  The  right 
heart  is  always  working  to  make  the  right  head  ; 
but  the  contrary  is  not  true,  as  many  a  man  has 
become  more  wicked  as  he  became  more  learned, 
while  no  man  has  grown  more  stupid  as  he  grew 
purer  in  heart. 

One  can  easily  perceive  how  the  contentious 
Hebrew-Christians  would  take  this  phrase,  "first 
pure,"  and  use  it  as  an  excuse  for  the  indulgence 
of  a  fierce,  fanatical,  polemic  spirit,  claiming  that 
the  first  duty  of  the  Church  was  to  exterminate 
heretics  and  so  keep  the  doctrinal  system  pure. 
This  were  a  mad  perversion.  There  is  probably 
nothing  written  on  this  passage  more  profitable 
to  remember  than  the  words  of  Albert  Barnes, 
here  transcribed  :     *'  This  passage  should  not  be 


178  The  Gospel  of  Comuwn  Sense. 

applied,  as  it  often  is,  to  the  doctrines  of  religion, 
as  if  it  were  the  first  duty  of  a  Church  to  keep  it- 
self free  from  errors  in  doctrine,  and  that  this 
ought  to  be  sought  even  in  preference  to  the 
maintenance  of  peace,  as  if  it  meant  that  in  doc- 
trine a  Church  should  be  first  pure  thefi  peace- 
able ,  but  it  should  be  applied  to  the  individual 
consciences  of  men  as  showing  the  effect  of  relig- 
ion on  the  heart  and  life.  It  is  true  that  a  Church 
should  be  pure  in  doctrinal  belief,  but  that  is  not 
the  truth  taught  here.  It  is  not  true  that  the 
Scripture  teaches,  here  or  elsewhere,  that  purity 
of  doctrine  is  to  be  preferred  to  a  peaceful  spirit  ; 
or  that  it  always  leads  to  a  peaceful  spirit  ;  or 
that  it  is  proper  for  professed  Christians  and  Chris- 
tian ministers  to  sacrifice,  as  is  often  done,  a 
peaceful  spirit  in  an  attempt  to  preserve  purity  of 
doctrine.  Most  of  the  persecutions  in  the  Church 
have  grown  out  of  this  maxim.  This  led  to  the 
establishment  of  the  Inquisition  ;  this  kindled  the 
fires  of  Smithfield  ;  this  inspired  Laud  and  his 
friends  ;  this  has  been  the  origin  of  no  small  part 
of  the  schisms  in  the  Church.  A  pure  spirit  is 
the  best  promoter  of  peace,  and  will  do  more  than 
anything  else  to  secure  the  prevalence  of  truth." 
(2)  The  wisdom  which  comes  from  God  is 
peaceable.  It  is  peaceable  because  it  is  pure. 
Men  that  have  no  false  and  wicked  purposes 
cannot  break  the  peace.  The  peace  of  the  world 
never  has  been  broken  by  a  pure  man,  a  man 


TJic  Gospel  of  Coininoii  Sense.  179 

who  had  no  worldly,  sensuous,  or  demoniac  de- 
sires to  gratify.  There  never  was  dissension  be- 
tween two  friends,  never  a  rupture  in  any  Church, 
never  a  rebellion  in  any  State,  never  a  war  be- 
tween two  countries,  never  a  wicked  controversy 
of  any  kind  which  did  not  have  its  origin  in  some 
impurity  of  soul.  It  is  always  foolish,  as  well  as 
wicked,  to  break  the  peace.  However  in  our 
wounded  self-love,  we  may  find  excuses  for  our 
own  participation  in  such  transactions,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  in  causing,  or  in  aiding  to  continue,  a 
violation  of  the  peace  we  are  not  wise. 

Here  again  we  have  James  echoing  the  words 
of  his  adored  brother  Jesus  :  "  Blessed  are  the 
peace-makers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the  children 
of  God  "  (Matt.  5  :  9).  There  is  no  blessing  for 
those  who  break  the  peace  ;  there  is  no  blessing 
for  the  warriors  who  fight  on  the  side  which 
breaks  the  peace.  Men  may  parade  them  in 
their  short-lived  histories,  and  erect  statues  to 
keep  before  men  the  effigies  of  their  personality, 
but  they  are  the  children  of  the  devil.  However 
they  may  fail  in  their  earnest  and  honest  efforts, 
the  peace-makers  are  always  regarded  by  the 
Lord  of  all  life  as  His  own  children. 

And  it  may  be  worth  noticing  that  the  bene- 
diction which,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
Jesus  pronounces  on  the  peace-makers,  follows 
immediately  after  that  which  is  given  to  the  pure 
in  heart  ;  just  as  James  says  :   "  First  pure,  then 


i8o  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

peaceable."  Is  this  a  mere  coincidence,  or  has  it 
some  logical  basis  ?  Can  we  live  in  peace  with- 
out being  pure?  The  pure  in  heart  see  God. 
God  is  the  "Lord  of  peace"  (2  Thess.  3:  16), 
and  gives  peace  to  His  children.  All  dissensions 
and  wars  come  from  the  evil  in  men's  hearts, 
and  when  that  is  banished  there  is  no  desire  for 
conflict. 

(3)  This  wisdom  is  reasonable.  It  is  not  violent 
in  its  maintenance  of  its  own  convictions  ;  it  is 
not  stubborn,  unwilling  to  hear  what  may  be  said 
"on  the  other  side."  There  are  men  who  deem 
themselves  wise,  who  storm  out  what  they  be- 
lieve to  be  the  truth.  Real  wisdom  does  not  so. 
Where  there  is  a  sober  conviction  of  the  right, 
and  a  firm  faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  the  right, 
all  that  a  man  has  to  do  is  to  speak  the  truth  in 
love.  It  is  folly  to  hate  the  men  who  hold  the 
other  view.  A  wise  man  pities  his  opponent,  but 
does  not  hate  him.  Hatred  would  imply  some- 
thing personal.  The  truly  wise  man  does  not 
so  much  love  himself  as  he  loves  the  truth.  If 
any  man  hold  an  error  the  wise  man  regards  him 
as  most  unfortunate,  and  pities  him,  as  a  man  in 
good  health  pities  his  neighbor  whose  eruptions 
show  that  he  is  diseased. 

Gentleness  is  not  weak,  and  is  not  the  product 
of  weakness.  It  comes  from  being  reasonable. 
None  but  the  strong  can  be  gentle  ;  others  may 
be  soft  and  apathetic,  but  gentleness  as  much  re- 


TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Se7tse.  i8i 

quires  strength  for  its  basis  as  the  beautiful  flowers 
and  verdure  require  the  strong  ground  of  the  geo- 
logical formations.  A  gentle  man  gains  by  giving. 
He  is  not  punctilious  of  his  rights.  He  will  main- 
tain them,  but  always  on  grounds  of  reason,  not 
of  passion.  He  holds  to  his  property  not  because 
it  is  his,  but  for  the  reason  that  he  is  responsible 
for  it.  Just  so  a  man  who  has  this  wisdom  from 
above,  will  not  be  violent  in  argument.  He  main- 
tains his  opinions  not  because  they  are  his  opinions, 
but  because  he  has  formed  them  reasonably,  and 
must  maintain  them  reasonably  and  not  passion- 
ately. So  he  will  hear  what  others  have  to  say. 
He  may  have  had  some  flaw  in  his  reasoning ;  he 
desires  above  all  things  to  be  right.  There  may 
be  something  again.st  his  opinions  which  he  has 
never  thought  of;  if  there  be  he  wishes  to  know 
it.  He  will  listen  patiently  to  an  unlettered  ser- 
vant, to  a  little  child,  to  any  one  who  can  contrib- 
ute in  the  slightest  to  the  enlargement  of  his 
understanding.  A  man  may  be  weak  and  soft  by 
nature,  but  not  gentle  ;  that  comes  from  wisdom, 
and  wisdom  comes  from  without,  comes  from 
above.  James  had  already  said,  "  If  any  of  you 
lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  who  giveth  "  (i  : 
5).  No  man  is  born  a  gentle  man.  Such  a  char- 
acter is  the  product  of  wisdom,  and  wisdom  is  not 
natural,  it  is  the  gift  of  God.  We  must  always 
keep  that  in  mind.  The  schools  may  give  cul- 
ture, learning  and  other  human  things,  but  not 


1 82  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

wisdom.  That  comes  supernaturally.  Solomon 
was  no  product  of  evolution,  else  some  of  his 
descendants  would  have  equalled  him,  and  others 
would  have  surpassed  him.  "  He  asked  of  God  " 
(i  Kin^s  3).  "  And  God  gave  Solomon  wisdom  " 
(i  Kings  4  :  29).  "And  Solomon's  wisdom  ex- 
celled .  .  .  all  the  v/isdom  of  Egypt  "  (i  Kings  4  : 
29).  Of  course  it  did,  because  the  wisdom  of 
Egypt  was  only  the  skill  and  cunning  which  hu- 
man nature  can  afford,  while  Solomon's  was  the 
true  wisdom  of  celestial  origin.  [Notice  the  con- 
nection of  statements  in  i  Kings  5  :  12,  "  And  the 
Lord  gave  Solomon  wisdom  as  He  had  promised 
Him  ;  and  there  was  peace  between  Hiram  and 
Solomon."] 

(4)  This  wisdom  is  persuadable.  Our  author 
here  uses  a  word  which  is  not  found  elsewhere  in 
the  Holy  Scripture,  and  which  cannot  be  fully 
rendered,  perhaps,  by  any  single  word  in  the 
English  tongue.  It  certainly  does  not  indicate 
any  deficiency  of  character,  and  surely  those  who 
are  easily  influenced  for  others,  Avhose  nature  is 
sometimes  described  as  **  a  nose  of  wax,"  have 
no  right  to  this  epithet.  "  Easily. persuaded?" 
Well,  yes :  if  that  mean  that  he  stands  open  to 
conviction,  willing  to  listen,  free  from  stubborn- 
ness :  but  not  if  it  mean  that  he  is  carried  every- 
where and  anywhere  by  all  the  winds  that 
blow.  As  the  word  which  we  have  translated 
"  reasonable"  (in  the  Common  Version  "  gentle  ") 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  1S3 

indicates  the  condition  of  the  wise  man's  sou! 
when  he  is  striving  to  convince  others,  so  this 
"  persuadable  "  seems  to  indicate  the  posture  of 
his  soul  when  others  are  striving  to  convince 
him.  It  means  that  if  he  has  made  an  error  he 
will  not  keep  wandering  on  because  he  is  un- 
willing to  retrace  his  steps  by  the  same  path.  It 
means  that  he  will  not  waste  energy  in  endeavor- 
ing to  hold  an  untenable  position  under  the  control 
of  intellectual  pride.  It  means  that  he  can  be  won 
over  by  fair  means  and  sound  argument.  He 
yields  to  no  force  that  is  not  reasonable,  as  he 
employs  no  agency  that  is  not  reasonable. 

There  are  persons,  as  we  all  know,  who  have  no 
sign  of  this  characteristic  of  wisdom,  and  ordinarily, 
when  this  is  absent,  so  is  this  third  characteristic, 
"  reasonableness."  They  are  twin  virtues.  He 
who  seeks  to  win  over  his  opponent  only  by  fair 
means,  is  very  liable  to  be  easily  won  by  fair 
means. 

We  are  to  remember  that  this  epistle  was 
addressed  to  those  whose  ruling  fault  was  con- 
tentiousness. They  were  contending  for  that 
which  was  ready  to  perish.  They  were  holding 
out  for  old  rules  against  new  principles.  They 
were  srriving  to  put  the  new  wine  of  Christianity 
into  a  ritual  which  was  an  old  bottle  James 
points  out  the  unwisdom  of  this,  that  it  was  the 
folly  of  those  who  preferred  the  bottle  to  the 
wine. 


184  The  Gospel  of  Covin  ion  Sense. 

(5)  The  fifth  trait  of  heavenly  wisdom  is  com- 
passion, "which,"  Josephus  says,  "of  good  passions 
was  most  of  all  lost  among  Jews."  Here,  again,  we 
have  an  echo  of  the  teachings  of  James's  brother, 
Jesus,  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount :  "  Blessed 
are  the  merciful,  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy" 
(Matt.  v).  In  a  man  of  true  celestial  wisdom 
there  is  so  much  sympathy  and  compassion  that 
it  is  perpetually  bursting  out  into  fruits  of  good- 
ness, which  are  so  profitable  that  all  men  ac- 
knowledge them.  You  cannot  know  so  well  the 
condition  of  the  tree,  but  fruits  are  visible  and 
palpable.  Men  know  the  tree  by  the  fruit,  as 
God  knows  the  fruit  by  the  tree. 

(6)  Sectarianism  is  the  pride  of  the  sectary,  but 
the  humiliation  of  all  true  religion.  The  wisdom 
from  above  does  not  lessen  a  man's  love  for  his 
own  denomination,  but  it  enlarges  his  love  for 
the  good  of  all  denominations.  It  avoids  confin- 
ing all  the  good  to  one  good  thing.  It  does  not 
abandon  its  own  Church,  but  it  belongs  to  all  other 
Churches,  and  they  all  belong  to  it. 

The  word  here  is  not  confined  to  religious  cir- 
cles, but  has  the  widest  meaning.  Wherever 
this  heavenly  wisdom  goes,  it  avoids  bringing 
upon  itself  the  condemnation  of  being  "partial," 
and  "a  judge  of  evil  thoughts"  (2:  4).  It  is 
not  partisan.  It  will  not  adhere  to  a  party  it 
loves,  "  right  or  wrong."  It  will  not  condemn 
the  other  party,  "wrong  or  right."     It  will  not 


TJie  Gospel  of  Covinion  Sense.  185 

oppress  the  poor  when  it  happens  to  be  rich,  nor 
wrong  the  rich  when  it  happens  to  be  poor.  Ap- 
peals on  grounds  of  caste  or,  class,  or  previous 
condition  will  have  no  effect  upon  its  judgment. 
It  regards  a  man  for  what  he  is,  not  for  what  he 
has,  or  has  been. 

The  Jews,  at  the  time  of  Christ,  accounted 
themselves  as  the  only  "  people"  ;  all  other  na- 
tions being  "dogs"  and  so  unclean  that  they  were 
not  to  be  admitted  to  social  intercourse.  This 
partiality  was  carried  to  such  an  extreme  of  sec- 
tarianism as  even  to  override  their  greed  for 
gain  ;  for  it  was  regarded  as  disgraceful  to  trade 
with  the  Gentiles.  This  so  impressed  other  na- 
tions, that  Tacitus  said  of  the  Jews  that  "they 
would  be  merciful  to  men  of  their  own  religion 
and  country,  but  hated  all  mankind  besides." 
Their  bitter  feeling  to  Samaritans  is  the  key  to 
the  conversation  which  the  woman  of  Samaria 
had  with  our  Lord  at  Jacob's  well  (John  4),  and 
to  our  Lord's  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 
(Luke  10). 

When  some  of  them  became  Christians  the  old 
spirit  broke  forth  in  sectarianism.  Some  desired 
to  keep  the  old  Judaism  ;  others  were  for  the 
fullest  enjoyment  of  the  liberty  wherewith  the 
Christ  had  made  them  free.  Some  were  for  war 
with  Rome  ;  others  were  for  peace.  The  latter 
were  regarded  by  the  former  as  no  better  than 
heathen.     JAMES  points  out  to  his  brethren,  how 


l86  T]ic  Gospel  of  Common  Soisc. 

utterly  wanting  in  heavenly  wisdom  was  all  this 
fiery,  fierce  fanaticism.  Well  had  it  been  for  the 
Jews  of  his  day  if  they  had  heeded  his  words  of 
prudent  and  godly  common-sense.  Their  secta- 
rianism produced  the  rebellions  which  precipi- 
tated their  destruction. 

(7)  The  last  characteristic  of  the  heavenly  wis- 
dom mentioned  by  our  author,  is  the  absence  of 
all  hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy  was  a  crying  sin  among 
the  Jews.  Against  nothing  did  Jesus  the  Christ 
lift  up  His  voice  in  more  clear  and  terrible  notes 
than  against  hypocrisy.  In  strain  after  strain  of 
terrific  invective  He  denounced  it  to  scribe  and 
pharisee  and  publican  and  sinner  and  disciple, 
with  woe  upon  woe  upon  woe,  as  if  He  would  re- 
duplicate and  multiply  its  damnation. 
A  CHEERING  PROMISE. 
The  whole  passage  closes  with  a  most  charm- 
ing and  cheering  promise.  If  the  teachers  and 
professors  of  the  faith  of  the  Lord  Jesus  will 
cultivate  peace — not  simply  do  occasional  acts — 
they  will  be  as  men  who  sow  good  seed,  which 
shall  bring  them  a  plentiful  harvest.  It  will  be  a 
harvest  after  the  kind  of  the  seed  sown.  It  will 
be  "peace  in  righteousness."  It  will  not  be  that 
poor  peace  which  a  man  temporarily  enjoys  in  re- 
turn for  the  sacrifice  of  some  principle,  and 
which  is  always  followed  by  unrest.  It  will  be 
"  peace  in  righteousness."  Whatever  others  may 
do   to   themx,  whatever   calumnies   and   slanders 


Tlic  Gospel  of  Conniion  Sense.  187 

may  be  uttered  against  them,  they  that  have  not 
spoken  bitter  and  slanderous  words  will  know 
peace.  And  that  peace  will  be  permanent.  The 
gains  of  strife  are  bitter  fruits,  as  well  to  him  who 
gains  as  to  him  that  loses  thereby.  But  the  fruits 
of  "peace  in  righteousness  "  shall  be  eternal. 

It  is  delightful  to  trace  the  echoes  of  the  words 
of  Jesus  in  the  words  of  James.  "  Blessed  are 
the  peace-makers,  for  they  shall  be  called  the  chil- 
dren of  God,"  said  the  one  (Matt.  5  :  9),  and  "  the 
fruit  of  peace  in  righteousness,"  says  the  other, 
"  is  sown  by  them  that  make  peace."  And  of 
old  time,  the  Psalmist  said  (Ps.  97:11),  "Light 
is  sown  for  the  righteous,"  and  the  prophet  (Isa. 
32  :  17),  declared  that  "the  work  of  righteousness 
is  peace,  and  the  effect  of  righteousness,  quietness 
and  assurance  forever." 


VIII. 
Demoniacal  Wisdom. 

CHAPTER    IV.,    1-3. 
FRUITS   OF   DEMONIAC   WISDOM. 

IN  the  opening  of  the  fourth  chapter,  James 
points  his  readers  to  the  terrible  fruits  of  that 
wisdom    which   is    not    from    above,    but    is 
earthly,  sensuous,  and  demoniacal. 

"  IV/ience  wars  and  zuhcncc  fightings  a7nong you  ? 
Are  they  not  hence,  even  fro))i  your  pleasures  exert- 
ing their  foree  in  your  members  ?  You  strongly 
desire  and  haz'e  not  ;  you  slay  and  are  zealous,  and 
you  are  not  able  to  obtain.  You  fight  and  tvar, 
and  have  not,  because  you  pray  not.  You  ash  and 
do  not  receive,  beca7ise  you  pray  zvickedly,  that  you 
may  spend  it  on  your  pleasures ^ 

Those  Jews  who  had  become  Christians,  were 
in  a  large  measure  moved  by  that  unrest  which 
agitated  those  who  still  remained  under  the  old 
ritual  of  religion.  Among  the  former  it  was  the 
tares  sown  among  the  wheat.  Among  the  latter 
it  was  as  a  field  all  overgrown  with  tares.  Readers 
of  the  New  Testament  will  recollect  allusions  to 
this  state  of  affairs  in  the  Gospels  and  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles.  The  Jewish  people  were  looking 
for  the  Messiah,  not  because   He  stood  for   the 


The  Gospel  of  Couiuion  Sense.  189 

salvation  of  their  souls,  and  the  elevation  of  the 
moral  tone  of  the  people,  but  as  for  One  who 
should  lead  them  against  the  Roman  force,  and 
with  superhuman  power  break  the  Roman  yoke. 
Questions  connected  with  the  main  issue,  or 
arising  therefrom,  divided  households  and  inflamed 
neighborhoods.  The  coming  of  Jesus,  and  the 
hopes  which  were  at  first  begotten  by  His  advent, 
and  then  disappointed  by  the  pacific  turn  of  His 
ministry,  increased  the  popular  inflammation. 
Pretenders  and  seditious  scoundrels,  and  perhaps 
sincere  fanatics  were  taking  advantage  of  this 
heated  expectation,  to  add  fuel  to  the  flame.  In 
the  twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Matthew  Jesus  warns 
His  disciples  against  those  who  should  claim  to  be 
the  political  Christ.  If  they  were  .solicited  to 
follow  some  leader  to  the  desert,  or  join  some 
secret  cabal  in  the  city  (v.  26)  they  were  not  to 
be  drawn  into  peril  by  listening  to  such  calls,  for 
the  reason  that  the  coming  of  the  true  Messiah 
would  be  with  as  unmistakable  a  sign  as  the  flash 
of  the  lightning.  The  Jewish  people  were  them- 
selves in  parties  on  this  question,  some  carrying 
their  spirit  of  resistance  to  Rome  into  violent 
procedure,  in  which  they  were  opposed  by  those 
who  hated  Rome  no  less,  but  counselled  moderation 
as  more  prudent.  Then,  when  some  of  them  became 
Christians,  those  who  remained  Jews  fought  them. 
Then  those  Christians  were  divided  among  them- 
selves,   some    leaning    to  the    old     ritual,    some 


190  TJie  Gospel  of  Coniinon  Sense. 

insisting  violently  on  the  old  ritual,  some  oppos- 
ing all  re-Judaizing  tendencies,  and  zealously,  and 
sometimes  violently,  fighting  for  the  freedom  of  the 
Gospel,  some  for  the  spiritual  freedom  of  the  new- 
form  of  faith,  and  some  for  what  was  so  great  a 
perversion  of  Christian  freedom  that  it  was  little 
less  than  licentiousness. 

FALSE  CHRISTS. 

Three  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian era,  there  had  arisen  a  false  Messiah,  named 
Theudas,  and,  subsequently,  "in  the  days  of  the 
taxing,"  had  arisen  one  Judas  of  Galilee,  who  led 
forth  a  band  of  four  hundred  men,  all  of  whom 
the  Romans  had  destroyed  (Acts  5).  And  yet, 
so  great  was  the  hatred  of  Rome,  and  so  fixed 
were  the  Jews  in  the  opinion  that  the  Messiah 
was  to  be  a  temporal  prince,  who  should  deliver 
them  from  the  Roman  yoke,  that  down  to  the 
writing  of  this  epistle,  broils,  tumults,  and  sedi- 
tions, all  unsuccessful,  marked  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  people,  in  every  city,  as  Josephus  says, 
not  only  in  Judea,  but  in  Alexandria,  Syria,  and 
many  others  places. 

It  is  quite  easy  to  conceive  that  the  excellent 
writer  of  this  epistle  had  in  his  mind  the  intent 
to  reach  the  Jews  who  were  outside  the  circle  of 
Hebrew-Christians  by  this  letter,  which  was 
primarily  addressed  to  those  brethren  and  cir- 
culating among  them,  and  thus  contribute  what 
he   could  to  postpone,  if  he  could  not  avert,  the 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  191 

destruction  of  his  people  by  the  superior  power 
of  the  Romans. 

EVILS  OF  WAR. 
What  a  tremendous  and  a  terrific  thing  is  war  ! 
How  it  makes  one  shudder  to  read  the  blood-red 
pages  of  the  history  of  humanity  from  the  begin- 
ning. Some  sketch  of  the  havoc  of  war  is  found  in 
the  following  statement  by  Burton  :  "  The  siege 
of  Troy  lasted  ten  years,  eight  months.  It  is  said 
there  died  870,000  Grecians,  670,000  Trojans  ;  at 
the  taking  of  the  city  were  slain  276,000  men, 
women,  and  children  of  all  sorts.  Csesar  killed  a 
million,  Mohammed  the  second  Turk,  30,000 ; 
Curius  Dentatus  fought  in  a  hundred  battles  ; 
eight  times  in  single  combat  he  overcame,  had 
forty  wounds,  was  rewarded  with  one  hundred 
and  forty  crowns,  triumphed  nine  times  for  his 
various  services.  M.  Sergius  had  thirty-two 
wounds  ;  Scaeva  the  Centurion,  I  know  not  how 
many  ;  every  nation  hath  their  Hectors,  Caesars, 
and  Alexanders.  Our  [English]  Edward  the 
Fourth  was  in  twenty-six  battles  afoot  ;  and  as 
they  do  all,  he  glories  in  it  ;  this  is  related  to  his 
honor.  At  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  1,100,000  died 
with  sword  and  famine.  At  the  battle  of  Can- 
nae, 70,000  men  were  slain,  as  Polybius  records, 
and  as  many  at  the  Battle  Abbey  with  us  [in 
England]  ;  and  it  is  no  news  to  fight  from  sun  to 
sun,  as  they  did,  as  Constantine,  Licinius,  etc. 
At  the  siege  of  Ostend,  a  poor  town  in  respect,  a 


192  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

small  fort,  but  a  great  grave,  120,000  men  lost 
their  lives,  besides  whole  towns  ruined,  and  hos- 
pitals full  of  maimed  soldiers.  There  were  en- 
gines, fireworks,  and  whatsoever  the  devil  could 
invent  to  do  mischief,  with  2,500,000  iron  bullets, 
and  shot  of  forty  pounds  weight,  three  or  four 
millions  of  gold  consumed." 

The  following  figures  are  taken  from  the  statis- 
tics of  the  Franco-German  war,  published  by  the 
Prussian  War  Office.  In  August,  1870,  780,728 
German  soldiers  crossed  the  French  frontier,  fol- 
lowed, during  the  war,  by  222,762  others.  The 
soldiers  remaining  in  Germany  were  400,000. 
At  the  close  of  the  armistice  the  German  army 
counted  936,618  men.  The  army  besieging  Paris 
numbered  180,000,  while  the  Paris  garrison  num- 
bered 230,000  men.  The  number  of  combats 
in  which  at  least  one  company,  one  squadron,  or 
a  battery  was  engaged  was  y66.  333,341  French 
prisoners  were  sent  into  Germany.  The  French 
lost  107  flags,  7,441  cannon,  and  855,000  fire- 
arms. The  loss  of  the  German  army  was  129,000 
men,  of  whom  40,862  were  killed,  and  88,838 
wounded  ;  17,572  were  killed  on  the  field,  and 
10,710  died  in  consequence  of  their  wounds.  The 
battle  of  Gravelotte  cost  20, 159  men;  Mars-la- 
Tour,  15,790;  Woerth,  10,642;  Sedan,  9,924; 
the  siege  of  Paris,  12,509  ;  and  Metz,  5,571.  The 
number  of  shots  from  field  guns  was  362,662.  The 
soldiers  used  30,000,000  cartridges,  the  most  being 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  193 

by  the  Third  Corps  at  Mars-la-Tour,  where  720,000 
rifle  shots  were  fired,  and  the  batteries  fired  10,- 
000  grenades. 

The  loss  of  life  would  be  appalling,  if  that  were 
all  that  war  entailed.  But  it  is  not.  Among 
those  who  die  in  battle  are  many  who  are  a  good 
riddance  to  the  world.  The  place  of  the  better 
portion  is  soon  taken  by  the  successive  genera- 
tions of  men.  The  killing  is  not  all.  The  bitter- 
ness infused  into  society  by  the  intrigues  and 
plottings  that  precede  wars,  the  heart-burnings  of 
the  authors  of  wars,  the  desolation  of  homes,  the 
long-drawn  agonies  of  fathers  and  mothers  and 
wives  and  daughters  and  friends  of  the  men  who 
are  called  to  the  field,  the  great  army  of  widows 
and  orphans  they  leave,  the  vast  destruction  of 
property,  which  can  be  replaced  only  by  years 
of  great  toil,  and  the  legacies  of  troubles,  taxes, 
debts,  and  political  bitterness,  bequeathed  to 
survivors,  are  added  elements  of  distress. 

When  all  this  is  surveyed,  a  thoughtful  mind 
naturally  wonders  how  human  nature  can  so 
much  as  allow  war,  not  to  say  glory  in  war. 
And  yet  there  is  the  fact,  that  even  at  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century  after  all  the  forms  of 
religion,  true  and  false,  have  been  seen  in  the 
world  from  the  beginning  ;  after  Christianity,  the 
religion  of  the  strongest  and  greatest  personality 
that  ever  appeared  amongst  men,  a  Man  who  died 
rather  than  fight  or  even  lend  Himself  to  a  war- 


194  TJie  Gospel  of  Couiuion  Sense. 

like  party  or  purpose,  a  religion  which  has  stimu- 
lated and  aided  the  intellectual  advancement  of 
the  race  and  produced  all  its  civilization  that  is 
worth  anything,  after  all  its  centuries  of  influ- 
ence— there  remains  the  fact,  that,  at  this  day, 
millions  of  men  are  drawn  from  the  profitable 
labors  of  peace  to  the  devastating  employments 
of  war,  or  are  standing  in  idle  array  awaiting  the 
onset  of  battle,  while  their  clothes,  their  arms, 
their  defences,  their  support,  must  be  wrung 
from  the  other  millions  who  are  allowed  to  stay 
at  home,  only  because  the  army  must  be  sup- 
ported. 

Surely,  in  our  age,  we  may  heed  the  sharp  cry 
of  James,  "  Whence  came  wars  and  fightings 
among  you?"  We  do  well  to  bow  to  the  in- 
struction of  this  wise  teacher,  who  turns  us  in 
upon  our  hearts  for  an  answer,  "Are  they  not 
hence,  even  from  your  pleasures  exerting  their 
force  in  your  members?" 

The  rhetorical  movement  of  speaking  to  his 
brethren,  and  through  them  to  others,  as  if  they 
were  present  gives  great  vivacity  to  the  style  of 
our  author.  Those  whom  he  addressed,  were  per- 
fectly well  aware  of  the  warlike  spirit  of  the  peo- 
ple, which  was  productive  of  "  fightings  among'' 
individuals.  He  does  not  say  one  word  as 
against  war,  as  that  was  not  needed.  "Wars 
and  fightings "  always  mean  wickedness  and 
wretchedness.     It  is  not  a  question  whether  war 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  195 

be  bad  or  not.  None  but  a  diabolical  intellect 
would  undertake  to  frame  an  argument  in  defence 
of  war  in  the  abstract.  It  is  an  admitted  dire 
evil.  Whence  comes  it  }  There  is  no  other 
spring  of  such  a  baleful  stream  than  that  which 
is  found  in  the  human  heart. 

WHENCE   COME   WARS. 

"  Whence  wars  and  whence  fightings  among 
you  ?  Are  they  not  hence,  even  from  your 
pleasures,  which  war  in  your  members?"  The 
word  here  translated  "  pleasures "  is  used  to  ex- 
press the  pleasure  of  the  senses,  and  hence  some- 
times signifies  strong  desire  for  such  gratification. 
In  this  picturesque  sentence,  these  are  represented 
as  warriors  spreading  themselves  through  "  the 
members/'  seizing  the  body  as  the  instrument  for 
the  accomplishing  of  their  designs  and  the  gaining 
of  their  ends.  It  is  the  desire  for  greater  territories, 
larger  incomes,  more  splendor,  wider  indulgence  in 
physical  pleasures,  greater  gratification  of  their 
pride  and  ambition,  which  lead  kings  to  wan 
Every  war  has  begun  in  sin. 

It  is  so  in  religious  circles.  The  pride  of  opinion, 
the  love  of  rule,  the  enjoyment  of  more  renown 
for  numbers  and  wealth  and  influence,  have  led 
sects  and  Churches  into  all  the  persecution  and  so- 
called  religious  wars  which  have  disgraced  the 
cause  of  truth,  and  discouraged  the  aspirations  of 
the  good,  and  increased  the  infidelity  of  the  world. 

Appealing  to  the  Jews  James  calls  their  atten- 
tion vividly  to  their  moral  and  spiritual  condition. 


196  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

"  You  strongly  desire  and  have  not."     [Here  the 
word  translated  "lust  "  is  not  of  the  same  root  as 
the  word  so    translated  in   the  preceding  verse]. 
Whitby  points  out  that  the  lusting  of  the  Jews  of 
that    day    was    after   two    things:    (i)    Liberty — - 
freedom  from  that  tribute  which  was  the  token  of 
their  subjection.    Josephus  says  that  they  were  con- 
tinually clamoring  for  this,  "  to  have  the  tributes 
taken  away"  ;  and  that  the  Zealots,  "  the  band  of 
thieves  and  their  magicians  were  still  pressing  the 
people  to  fight  for  their  liberty  from  the  Roman 
yoke."     (2)  They  lusted  not  only  for  freedom,  but 
for  domination  over  other  peoples.     The  desire  for 
independence  had   its  basis  in  good,  although   it 
led  them  to  do  wicked  things  to  secure  it.     They 
desired    to    bring  other   people    into    the   galling 
relation  to  themselves  which  they  were  suffering 
in  their  relation  to  the  Romans.     And  what  was 
true  politically  was  true   ecclesiastically.      They 
desired  to  rule  others,  the    unchristianized    Jews 
striving  to  dominate  the  Hebrew-Christians,  and 
they  striving  in  return  against  the  Jews,  while  the 
latter  were  looking  for  a  Messiah  who  should  en- 
able them  to  tyrannize  the  heathen. 

THE  FRUITLESSNESS  OF  SIN. 
How  fruitless  all  this  wicked  exertion  !  "  What 
you  desire  you  have  not,"  says  James.  "You 
slay  and  are  enemies  ;  yet,  even  in  such  extreme 
measures,  you  have  not  the  power  to  obtain  what 
you   want.     You  have   slain   John   the  Baptist. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  197 

You  have  slain  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory.  You 
have  slain  that  good  man  Stephen.  You  have 
slain  James  Zebedee.  You  have  endeavored  to 
slay  Paul  !  "  What  an  indictment  !  And  how 
short  a  time  after  it  was  uttered  was  it  before 
they  slew  the  author  of  this  epistle  himself. 

And  yet  had  they  gained  anything  .''  A  few 
proselytes  were  made  from  one  sect  to  another  : 
that  was  all.  What  a  poor  purchase  at  what  a 
prodigious  price  !  And  why  had  they  failed  .''  Be- 
cause they  had  not  sought  ends  pleasing  to  God  in 
the  attempt  to  obtain  that  upon  which  they  could 
not  ask  God's  blessing.  This  teaches  us  a  most  im- 
portant lesson,  in  morals  as  well  as  religion.  If 
any  question  of  right  arise  one  has  only  to  ask, 
Does  God  wish  me  to  do  this  ' 

There  need  scarcely  ever  be  difficulty  in  fina- 
ing  a  correct  answer  to  that  question.  The  ex- 
plicit commands  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  solve  a 
very  large  proportion  of  all  ethical  questions 
which  arise,  and  the  principles  laid  down  in  Holy 
Scripture  enable  any  man  of  ordinary  good  sense 
to  frame  rules  for  all  recurring  emergencies. 
A  superstitious  religion  is  always  desiring  to 
have  God  on  its  side  ;  but  an  ethical  religion  is 
always  studying  to  be  on  God's  side. 
PRAYER. 
James  is  writing  very  vividly,  as  though  he 
were  face  to  face  with  those  whom  he  was  re- 
proving.    When    he    intimates    that    they   had 


198  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

sought  to  obtain  by  violence  what  should  have 
been  sought  in  prayer,  he  seems  to  hear  them 
exclaim,  "Pray!  Pray!  Why,  do  we  not  pray 
ten  times  in  the  day  ?  zve  are  not  the  men  to 
summon  to  prayer.  Call  on  the  heathen."  Nay, 
James  would  say.  You  ask ;  you  do  not  pray. 
Your  petitions  are  conceived  in  sinfulness,  and 
uttered  in  wickedness.  All  true  prayers  made 
to  God,  are  for  something  which  will  enable  the 
supplicant  to  please  and  serve  God.  It  is  an  un- 
hallowed petition  which  asks  for  something  which 
I  intend  to  spend  on  the  gratification  of  my  own 
selfish,  sensual,  wicked  and  destroying  lusts.  It 
was  not  for  the  greater  glory  of  God,  and  the  ex- 
tension of  His  kingdom,  that  the  Jews  longed  for 
independence  and  dominion ;  it  was  that  they 
might  gratify  the  wicked  thirsts  of  their  own  cor- 
rupt hearts. 

Let  us  be  careful  of  our  prayers.  They  show 
our  hearts  to  God,  and  ought  to  reveal  them  to 
ourselves. 


IX. 

Worldly-mindedness. 

CHAPTER   IV.,   4-17. 
REPROACHES. 

LOOKING  upon  the  distracted  state  of  Juda- 
ism, and  seeming  to  see  the  ancient  peo- 
ple falling  away  from  God,  James  breaks 
into  strong  reproaches. 

In  the  verses  4-6  he  thus  addresses  them  :  "  Ye 
adulterers  and  adulteresses,  do  ye  not  knozv  that 
the  friendsJiip  of  the  world  is  hatred  of  God? 
Whosoever,  therefore,  chooses  to  be  a  friend  of  the 
world  maketh  himself  an  enemy  of  God.  Or,  do  ye 
think  that  the  Scripture  speaketli  emptily  ?  Does 
the  spirit  which  He  has  made  to  dwell  in  us  incline 
to  envy  ?  On  the  contrary,  He  givetJi  a  greater 
grace  ;  for  He  saith  '  Godresisteth  the  proud,  but  to 
the  humble  He  giveth  grace.'  " 

the  religious  covenant  a  marriage. 

The  spirit  of  the  old  prophets  seems  to  have 
come  upon  James.  The  strain  in  this  passage 
reminds  us  of  the  tones  in  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel. 
It  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  observe  in  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  both  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testament,  how  the  idea  of  religion  is  set  forth 
in  marriage. 

In  the  New  Testament  the  Apostle  represents 


200  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

marriage  as  setting  forth  that  mystical  union 
which  is  between  Christ  and  His  Church.  And 
this  thought  came  to  him,  undoubtedly,  from  his 
knowledge  of  the  fact,  that  the  old  covenant  was 
regarded  as  a  marriage  between  Jehovah  and  His 
people.  Perhaps  in  this  very  early  and  long- 
cherished  connection  of  thoughts,  we  may  see  how 
adultery  has  been  considered  one  of  the  chief 
crimes ;  and  with  that  thought,  what  an  appeal  it 
is  to  any  people  to  be  faithful  to  their  religious 
covenant,  by  reminding  them  that  the  infidelity 
in  this  department  is  as  gross  and  debasing  a  sin, 
as  infidelity  to  the  marriage  relation.  It  would 
profit  the  reader  to  examine  the  following  passages 
from  the  Old  Testament  Scripture ;  Ps.  73 ;  Isa. 
57;  Ez.  23;  Hos.  3. 

These  show  us  how  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Hebrew  seers  was  the  bond  of  union  between 
God  and  His  Church,  and  how  foul  they  regarded 
the  stain  brought  upon  any  soul  by  any  course  of 
thought,  or  feeling,  or  conduct,  which  separated  it 
from  its  God.  That  separation  was  always  traced 
to  another  love,  a  love  which  was  illegitimate. 
We  know  that  the  Jews,  in  the  days  of  James, 
were  greatly  given  to  carnal  excesses,  and  it  is 
possible  that  in  selecting  this  particular  word  to 
indicate  spiritual  apostasy,  he  may  have  also  ad- 
ministered a  side  rebuke  to  all  the  carnal  modes 
of  life.  And  the  idea  is  carried  forward  in  what 
he  next  says. 


The  Gospel  of  Co7nmon  Sense.  20 1 

He  intimates  to  them  that  nothing  ought  to  be 
better  known  to  them  than  the  fact  that  God  has 
taught  that  friendship  of  the  world  is  hatred  of 
God.  It  was  their  worldly-mindedness,  it  was 
their  desire  to  enjoy  this  present  world,  which 
had  led  them  to  envy,  to  hatred,  to  wars,  to  fight- 
ings ;  and  so  he  goes  back  to  the  very  source 
of  the  terrible  state  of  affairs  amongst  them,  and 
rebukes  them,  because  they  were  living  in  viola- 
tion of  their  marriage  vows  to  God.  He  solemnly 
reminds  them  that  the  bride  of  God  could  not  be 
the  world's  bride. 

In  this  passage  "  the  world  "  is  to  be  understood 
to  be  the  personification  and  representation  of 
that  which  is  opposed  to  God.  We  must  not 
take  morbid  views  of  this  subject.  So  sensible  a 
writer  as  James  could  not  have  meant  that  those 
who  serve  God  could  not  be  touched  with  the 
beauty  of  this  visible  world  with  its  carpeted  sur- 
face, its  brave  overhanging  sky,  its  beautiful  and 
constantly  varying  phenomena,  and  the  great 
educating  power  there  is  in  studying  the  laws  of 
these  phenomena.  He  is  not  inveighing  against 
aesthetics  and  science.  On  the  contrary  he  well 
knew,  as  we  well  know,  that  love  regards  with 
interest  the  very  garments  worn  by  the  beloved, 
and  the  most  devout  soul  might  kiss  the  visible 
material  as  one  that  loved  him  might  kiss  the 
hem  of  the  garment  of  a  king. 


202  The  Gospel  of  Coninion  Sense. 

THE  LOVE  OF  GOD   AND  WORLDLY-MINDEDNESS. 

We  know,  also,  for  the  Scripture  teaches  us, 
that  they  who  love  God  take  pleasure  in  studying 
His  works.  Everything  of  which  knowledge  can 
be  got  by  the  senses  becomes  more  precious  to 
them,  because  it  is  regarded  as  the  work  of  their 
adored  Lord.  But  he  does  point  to  the  fact,  that 
it  is  possible  to  become  so  engaged  by  the  beau- 
tiful things  of  the  world,  by  pomp  and  display, 
by  gay  dress  and  courtly  address,  by  many  things 
in  society  that  charm  the  eye,  as  to  have  the  soul 
wholly  drawn  off  from  God.  It  is  possible,  also, 
so  to  study,  so  to  become  engaged  with,  the 
phenomena  of  the  universe  and  the  laws  which 
govern  those  phenomena,  as  actually  to  feel  that 
there  is  nothing  beyond  the  things  which  can  be 
reached  by  the  senses,  and  to  worship  law  as  if  it 
were  the  personal  law-giver,  and  so  be  lost  to  God. 
All  such  love  becomes  hatred  to  God,  and  as  we 
see  throughout  human  society,  the  wordly-mind- 
ed  people  and  materialistic  scientists  become  idol- 
aters, and  thus  violate  the  marriage  covenant  of 
their  souls  with  God. 

It  is  to  be  noticed,  that  the  Apostle  speaks  of 
this  state  of  mind  as  being  the  result  of  choice. 
"  Whosoever,  therefore,  chooses  to  be  the  friend  of 
the  world,"  that  is,  either  allows  himself  on  account 
of  his  ungodly  inclinations  to  drift  into  world- 
liness,  or  deliberately  makes  up  his  mind  for  any 
reason  to  make  the  friendship  of  the  world  at  all 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  203 

costs,  does  thereby  become  an  enemy  of  God. 
He  is  willing  to  neglect  the  indication  of  God's 
will;  he  is  willing  to  violate  God's  commandment; 
he  is  willing  to  give  up  all  thought  of  pleasing 
God,  if  he  can  please  the  world  around  him. 

With  all  an  Israelite's  hatred  of  the  heathen, 
with  all  a  Christian's  professions  of  renunciation, 
it  is  possible  for  one,  or  the  other,  or  both,  to 
make  this  dreadful  choice. 

James's  question  must  have  thrilled  his  brethren 
when  they  first  read  it,  and  it  may  well  thrill  us  and 
set  us  to  the  close  examination  of  our  own  hearts. 
Christian  people  in  this  day,  are  surrounded  by 
those  who  do  not  fear  God  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments, who  are  not  living  "as  seeing  Him 
that  is  invisible,"  who  have  no  treasures  laid  up 
in  heaven,  who  have  no  plans  or  purposes  which 
shall  extend  into  an  existence  beyond  the  grave. 
That  world  is  a  vain  world,  that  is  to  say,  it  is 
empty  of  God,  empty  of  faith,  empty  of  hope,  and 
empty  of  all  spiritual  life.  At  best,  it  has  cliques, 
it  has  coteries,  and  it  has  friendships  ;  it  has  its 
fashions,  its  pleasures  and  its  amusements  ;  but 
how  empty  they  all  are  ! 

WHO  IS  A  "LOVER  OF  THE  WORLD".? 

Let  us  ask  ourselves  a  few  questions.  Is  not 
he  a  lover  of  the  world,  who  makes  his  choice  of 
friends  from  worldly  men  and  women,  because 
they  are  worldly  people  }  Is  not  he  a  lover  of 
the   world,  who  is   found    oftener   in    places    of 


204  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

doubtful  or  sinful  or  merely  worldly  amusement 
than  in  the  assembly  of  the  saints,  in  the  con- 
gregation of  the  worshippers,  in  the  meeting  for 
prayer  ?  Is  not  he  a  lover  of  the  world,  who 
spends  more  of  his  income  annually  in  promoting 
those  things  which  exist  simply  for  society  and 
for  this  passing  world,  than  he  does  to  promote 
the  spread  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  his  own 
family  and  among  the  children  of  men  ? 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  details.    Every  in- 
telligent person  knows  the  difference  between  the 
Church  and  the  world,  and  every  one  can  settle  for 
himself  whether  the  larger  part  of  his  influence 
goes  to  the  one  or  to  the  other.     He  knows  which 
subordinates  the  other  in  his  affections.    He  knows 
whether  in  seeking  his  home,  whether  in  fixing 
the  place  of  his  residence,  or  in  choosing  the  very 
church  in  which  he  is  to  worship,  he  is  governed 
more  by  the  thought  of  that  which  will  promote 
the  popularity  of  himself  and  his  family  with  the 
people  of  the  world,  and  give  him  greater  access 
to  all  their  pleasures  and  amusements,  than  by 
the  thought  of  the  spiritual  advancement  of  him- 
self and  his  children.     It  is  to  be  remembered, 
that  each  one  of  us  belongs  either  to  the  friends 
of  the  world  or  to  the  friends  of  God. 
HOLY    SCRIPTURE    AGAINST    WORLDLY-MINDED- 
NESS. 
Against  this  worldly-mindedness,  which  is  the 
father  of  envy  and  the  grandfather  of  wars  and 


772!^  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  205 

fightings,  James  brings  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  He  appeals  to  those  who  had  always 
professed  to  have  reverence  for  the  word  of  God. 
He  employs  a  word  which  was  always  used  to 
denote  the  Old  Testament  —  a  word  occurring 
more  than  fifty  times  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
always  applied,  and  applied  only,  to  those  books 
which  the  Jews  regarded  as  inspired. 

"Can  you  think  lightly  of  the  tenor  of  the 
teaching  of  the  Holy  Scripture?"  is  his  question. 
He  does  not  quote  any  passage  from  those  sacred 
writings  ;  but  he  appeals  to  their  reverence  for 
them,  and  uses  the  general  trend  of  their  teach- 
ing to  enforce  his  exhortation  to  turn  from  that 
worldliness  which  produces  envy  and  all  the  ter- 
rible evils  which  follow  in  its  train.  He  might 
have  had  in  his  mind  such  passages  as  these  : 
(Job  5  :  12),  "  Wrath  killeth  and  envy  slayeth  the 
silly  one  ; "  or  these  words  of  Solomon  (Eccl.  4  : 
4),  "I  considered  all  travail  and  every  right  work, 
that  for  this  a  man  is  envied  of  his  neighbor  ; " 
(Prov.  14:30),  "Envy  is  the  rottenness  of  the 
bones  ;  "  (Prov.  27  :  4),  "  Who  is  able  to  stand 
before  envy .' " 

He  may  have  also  had  in  his  mind  the  cases 
that  had  occurred,  that  were  recorded  in  Sacred 
Scripture,  showing  the  truth  of  these  sayings. 
Such  is  that  passage  in  Isaac's  life  (Gen.  26) 
when  the  envy  of  the  herdmen  of  Gerar  led  to  a 
conflict  in  regard  to  the  well,  which  thence  took 


2o6  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

the  dreadful  name  Esek,  contention;  or  the  ac- 
count (Gen.  30)  of  Rachel's  envy  of  her  sister, 
which  led  to  such  sin  and  sorrow  in  the  house- 
hold of'Jacob  ;  or  the  story  (Gen.  37)  of  the  envy 
which  the  brethren  of  Joseph  had  toward  him, 
which  brought  exile  and  captivity  upon  the 
young  brother,  years  of  keenest  distress  to  the 
old  father,  and  a  series  of  perplexities  and  mis- 
haps to  the  family  in  all  its  branches.  Perhaps  the 
familiar  Psalm  106  may  have  brought  the  thought 
of  that  sin  in  the  camp  in  the  wilderness,  when  the 
forefathers  "envied  Moses,  and  Aaron  the  saint  of 
the  Lord  ;  when  the  earth  opened  and  swallowed 
up  Dathan  and  covered  the  company  of  Abi- 
ram ;  when  fire  was  kindled  in  their  company 
and  the  flame  burned  up  the  wicked."  The 
readers  of  James  might  be  expected  to  call  to 
mind  the  solemn  Psalm  of  Asaph  (Ps.  73)  in 
which  the  devout  singer  related  the  painful  ex- 
perience which  he  had  endured,  when  his  "feet 
were  almost  gone  and  his  steps  had  well-nigh 
slipped,  because  he  was  envious  of  the  foolish, 
when  he  saw  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked."  He 
did  not  need  to  quote  any  particular  passage 
from  a  book  which  was  full  of  the  records  of  the 
wickedness  of  the  human  heart,  and  of  the 
direful  consequences  of  that  wickedness.  Out  of 
the  Old  Testament  take  all  that  refers  to  this 
subject  and  you  leave  it  a  blank,  almost  an 
"  empty"  book.     But  if  the  subject  recurred  in 


The  Gospel  of  Comm  m  Sense.  207 

the  Scriptures  only  a  one-liundredth  of  the  times 
it  does,  it  ought  to  be  impressive  to  the  heart  of 
a  man  who  bad  been  educated  an  IsraeHte. 

We  may  pause  to  remind  ourselves  that  J  AMES 
appealed  to  the  highest  authority  in  morals  exist- 
ing in  his  day,  namely,  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
ture. In  our  day,  Hebrew-Christians  and  Chris- 
tian-Hebrews accept  the  New  Testament  as  of 
equal  authority,  while  the  principle  remains  that 
the  final  appeal  amongst  men,  on  any  question  of 
morals,  must  be  to  the  word  of  the  Most  High 
God.  What  that  teaches  us  to  do,  it  is  right  to 
do.  What  that  forbids  us  to  do,  it  is  wrong  to 
do.  All  other  things  are  indifferent.  In  ques- 
tions of  ethics,  we  can  do  nothing  with  a  man 
who  denies  this  authority  ;  we  can  hold  no  argu- 
ment with  him  ;  we  can  say  nothing  to  produce 
conviction,  unless  our  own  lives  be  such  as  to 
make  the  man  feel  that  any  teaching  which  pro- 
duces such  a  life  must  have  in  it  the  most  power- 
ful ethical  energy.  We  can  do  nothing  with  the 
man  who  denies  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, as  the  word  of  God,  because  we  have  no 
common  standard  to  which  to  appeal.  It  was 
doubtless  the  intention  of  our  author  to  put  his 
assertion  in  its  most  effective  form  by  stating  it 
in  the  shape  of  a  question.  If  worldliness,  en- 
viousness  and  contentions  are  not  bitter  things, 
the  Bible  is  not  worth  mentioning  ;  but  if  the 
Holy  Scripture   be  the   word  of  God,  the  most 


2o8  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

tremendous    denunciation    from     the     Supreme 
Power  of  the  universe  is  launched  against  those 
dreadful  sins. 
THE   HOLY   SPIRIT    AGAINST    WORLDLY-MINDED- 

NESS, 

James  brings  another  argument  to  bear  on  this 
subject.  It  is  founded  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
all  Christians  were  supposed  to  have  dwell  in 
them.  Was  ever  envy,  with  all  its  dire  train  of 
evils,  a  product  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  Does  ever 
the  Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  us,  secretly  and 
spiritually  incline  us  to  worldliness  and  envy,  any 
more  than  the  same  Holy  Ghost  does  in  the 
Bible  ?  Is  not  "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  love,  joy, 
peace,  long-suffering,  kindness,  goodness,  meek- 
ness, temperance"?  Are  we  not  inclined  to  all 
these  things  by  the  Holy  Spirit  constantly.-'  And 
can  these  things  co  exist  with  worldly-minded- 
ness,  envy,  hatred,  malice,  and  all  uncharitable- 
ness  .■* 

The  Holy  Spirit,  instead  of  producing  these 
hateful  things,  so  unfavorable  to  spiritual  growth, 
grants  unto  us  a  grace  which  adorns  and  enriches 
our  lives,  so  that  it  is  greater  than  all  the  things 
we  can  gain  by  envy  and  strife  ;  and  that  we  may 
know  that  He  does  give  that  grace,  the  Holy 
Spirit  hath  said  (Prov.  3  :  34)  "  Surely  He  scorn- 
eth  the  scorners,  but  He  giveth  grace  unto  the 
lowly."  James  was  familiar  with  the  Septuagint 
version  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  and  from 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  209 

it  makes  this  quotation  exactly,  except  that  that 
version  has  "Lord"  instead  of  "God."  But  the 
thought  is  the  same,  "  God  resisteth  the  proud, 
but  giveth  grace  to  the  humble." 

GOD   IS   AGAINST   PRIDE. 

There  is  something  striking  in  the  prepositions 
of  the  Greek  version.  God  puts  Himself  against 
those  who  lift  themselves  Jip.  The  proud  lift 
themselves  up  above  their  own  deserts,  above 
their  own  fellow-men,  above  their  God.  On  this 
challenge  God  puts  Himself  in  battle-array  against 
the  proud.  We  know  what  will  come  then,  for 
who  can  resist  God,  when  once  He  places  His 
wisdom.  His  power,  His  providence  against  a 
man  ?  It  were  well  if  all  the  proud  would  turn 
themselves  to  this  thought,  that  pride  is  a  per- 
petual fight  against  God,  and  God  is  perpetually 
fighting  the  proud  ;  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
processes  of  nature,  nothing  in  the  word  of  God, 
nothing  in  the  way  He  has  devised  for  men's 
salvation  which  can  in  the  least  degree  be  used  to 
nourish  pride  ;  but  there  is  everything  to  slap 
pride  in  the  face  and  spit  upon  its  gewgaws. 
There  is  everything  in  nature,  in  the  word  of  God, 
in  His  providences,  in  His  way  of  saving  men 
through  Jesus  Christ,  to  exalt  the  humble. 

It  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  be  saved  who  does 
not  come  for  salvation  with  a  clear  discernment 
of  his  real  guiltiness  and  absolute  helplessness. 
But  when  a  man  has  cast  away  all  pride,  and  is 


2IO  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

thoroughly  humbled,  then  God  loves  to  show  him 
favors.  There  is  no  peace  for  the  heart,  there  is 
no  progress  for  the  intellect,  there  is  no  salvation 
of  the  spirit  without  humility.  The  choice  given 
to  us  all,  is  between  humility  and  humiliation.  It 
is  so  in  society,  and  in  civil  and  religious  life. 
Pride  comes  before  destruction  in  the  pursuit  of 
scientific  attainments,  in  acquiring  influence  over 
our  fellow-men,  and  in  striving  to  administer 
ecclesiastical  affairs. 

He  who  would  learn  the  secrets  of  nature,  must 
bow  his  ear  most  humbly  to  her  mouth,  and 
never  venture  proudly  to  apply  his  mouth  to  her 
ear.  No  man  has  added  to  the  real  assets  of 
science,  who  has  not  studied  nature  in  this  spirit. 
No  man  has  ever  largely  influenced  and  led  his 
fellow-men,  until  they  have  seen  in  him  a  real 
disposition  to  be  most  truly  and  thoroughly 
serviceable  unto  them.  The  law  of  the  Master  is 
the  law  of  love.  He  that  will  be  chief  among 
you,  must  be  servant  of  all. 

TRUE   CONVERSION — ITS   CHARACTERISTICS. 

Trusting  that  his  words  had  made  an  impres- 
sion upon  his  brethren,  James  proceeds  to  instruct 
them  in  the  characteristics  of  true  conversion. 

"  Be  subject,  therefore,  unto  God.  Resist  the  devil, 
and  lie  will  flee  from.  you.  Draw  nigJi  to  God, 
a  nd  He  zvill  draw  nigh  to  you.  Cleanse  your  hands, 
ye  sinners  ;  and  purify  yo2ir  hearts,  ye  double- 
souled.     Be  greatly  afflicted  and  mourn  and  wish 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  2 1 1 

to  weep :  let  your  laughter  be  turned  into  mourning 

and  your  joy  into  sadness.     Hiimble  yourselves  in 

the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  He  will  lift  you  upT 

SUBMISSION   TO    GOD. 

The  first  thing  necessary  for  a  thorough,  hearty- 
change  in  the  whole  moral  life  of  a  man,  is  to 
submit  himself  to  God.  There  are  no  sanctions  of 
morality  to  an  atheist.  He  that  does  not  believe 
in  a  personal  God  cannot  be  a  moral  man.  It  is 
not  said  that  he  will  not  do  many  things  which  are 
right,  many  things  which  the  moral  men  around 
him  do  ;  it  is  not  said  that  he  may  not  even  find 
what  he  calls  "  data  of  ethics,"  and  formulate 
some  sort  of  system,  either  from  utilitarianism, 
which  finds  that  right  to  do  which  it  is  profitable 
to  do,  or  from  hedonism,  which  finds  that  to  be 
right  which  administers  to  the  '^q.x's,ox\2\  pleasure. 
NO    MORALITY    POSSIBLE   TO    ATHEISM. 

But  on  whatever  ground  he  may  put  his 
intellectual  system,  there  is  nothing  to  bind  him. 
Supposing  a  man  had  precisely  the  data  of  ethics 
known  to  the  mind  of  God,  and  had  formulated 
precisely  the  system  which  stands  in  the  mind  of 
God,  and  suppose  he  even  endeavored  to  conform 
his  life  steadily  to  this  system,  he  might  still  be 
an  immoral  man.  He  would  be  if  he  had  no 
sanction  to  his  system.  The  data  and  the  system 
are  inoperative  without  a  sanction,  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  conceivable  sanction  of  morality, 
which  does  not  have  reference  to  a  person  of  para- 


212  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

mount  moral  authority  ;    and  a  person  of  para- 
mount moral  authority  is  a  synonyme  for  God. 

One  easily  perceives  that,  supposing  it  were 
known  what  course  of  conduct  would  bring  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number,  the  ques- 
tion still  remains  unanswered,  why  is  any  man 
bound  to  bring  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest 
number  ?  What  obligation  is  he  under  to  the 
greatest  number?  What  has  the  greatest  num- 
ber ever  done  for  him  ?  How  does  a  favor  create 
an  obligation  ?  Why  is  it  not  better  to  do  that 
which  is  more  profitable  to  a  man's  self  than  that 
which  is  more  profitable  to  all  mankind,  suppos- 
ing that  there  could  be  two  entirely  diverse 
courses  thus  described  ? 

Again,  why  should  a  man  pursue  that  course 
of  conduct  which  brings  the  greatest  pleasure  to 
himself?  What  binds  him  to  such  a  course  if  he 
choose  to  take  another  which  brings  less  pleas- 
ure to  himself?  Whatever  puts  on  the  semblance 
of  an  ethical  idea,  which  does  not  have  in  itself 
a  clear  conception  of  a  paramount  personality 
who  must  be  obeyed,  is  no  ethical  idea  at  all. 
The  essence  of  the  ethical  idea  is  obedience  to 
another,  to  One  who  is  superior  to  all  and  has 
authority  over  all. 

WHO  IS  A  MORAL  MAN  ? 

A  moral  person  is  one  who  has  a  God  whom 
he  feels  he  ought  to  obey,  who  consequently  feels 
that  that    God  has   conveyed    to   him  some  in- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  213 

struction  which  he  can  understand  and  must 
obey,  who,  believing  these  two  things,  does  obey 
the  injunctions  of  his  God,  and  simply  and  solely 
because  they  are  divine  injunctions. 

Wherefore,  the  beginning  of  all  morality,  and  of 
all  religion,  is  the  perfect  subjection  of  the  human 
to  the  divine,  of  the  man  to  his  God.  He  could 
not  be  a  moral  personality  himself  if  he  could  not 
rebel  against  that  God,  and  there  would  be  no 
moral  element  in  any  cultivated  thought,  feeling, 
or  action  unless  that  culture  were  undertaken  of 
choice  on  the  part  of  the  man.  In  other  words, 
if  God  did  compel  a  man  to  do  certain  things, 
keep  His  commandments  for  instance,  there  would 
be  no  morality  in  a  life  thus  poured  by  the  hand 
of  God  like  molten  lead  into  the  moulds  God  has 
made.  Submit  j<?Mr.f^/z;^.y  assumes,  therefore,  the 
personal  freedom  of  those  addressed,  and  their 
capability  of  cherishing  ethical  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, and  of  performing  ethical  acts.  The  added 
phrase,  "to  God,"  makes  the  submission  moral. 

There  can  come  no  peace  to  any  man  who 
struggles  against  God.  There  will  always  be 
trouble  in  his  moral  nature.  Peace  comes  with 
harmony,  and  harmony  with  accord,  and  accord 
with  the  rule  of  the  superior  over  the  inferior  and 
the  submission  of  the  inferior  to  the  superior. 
Wherefore,  submission  to  God  is  the  beginning  of 
all  good  living.  It  will  involve  breaking  with  the 
world,  denying  the  supremacy  of  society,  throw- 


214  T^^^*^  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

ing  off  the  yoke  of  Mammon,  and  drawing  out  the 
whole  life  by  the  rule  of  God. 

WHAT  IS  A  DEVIL  ? 
A  devil  is  whatever  strives  to  draw  us  away 
from  that  allegiance  to  God.  The  devil  is  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air  ;  the  exerter  of  an 
influence  as  impalpable  and  as  invisible  as  the 
air,  and  yet  as  pervasive;  what  we  sometimes  call 
"  the  spirit  of  the  age."  Him  we  ought  to  resist. 
It  is  a  degrading  superstition  which  makes  men 
feel,  if  they  do  not  exactly  believe  it,  that  the 
devil  is  omnipotent.  In  these  brief  apophthegms, 
James  sets  forth  picturesquely  the  spiritual  dy- 
namics in  the  spiritual  world.  As  cunning  in  any 
individual  produces  cowardice,  so  with  all  his  sub- 
tlety and  strength  the  devil  is  a  coward.  Any 
resolute  child  can  put  him  to  flight.  All  one 
needs  is  to  resist  the  devil.  The  strongest  and 
loftiest  saint  will  be  tempted,  but  the  youngest 
and  feeblest  child  need  not  yield  to  temptation. 
The  wrong  is  not  in  being  tempted,  but  in  not 
resisting.  If  men  who  are  drunken  or  licentious, 
would  set  even  their  enfeebled  moral  wills  reso- 
lutely to  never  tasting  a  drop  of  that  which  intox- 
icates, to  never  looking  upon  that  which  tempts ; 
if  they  would  thoroughly  believe  and  perpetually 
act  upon  this  brief  saying  of  James,  as  embodying 
an  inflexible  principle  in  the  spiritual  world,  "  Re- 
sist the  devil,  and  he  will  flee  from  you,"  how 
triumphant  would  become  lives  which  now  sue- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  2 1 5 

cumb  to  evil.      But  it  is  submission  to  God  which 
gives  power  to  resist  the  devil. 

WHY    MEN   DO   NOT   SUBMIT   TO    GOD. 

One  reason  why  men  do  not  submit  to  God  is, 
that  He  is  in  their  imagination  something  afarofif, 
a  distant,  dim  ideal,  instead  of  a  real  personality 
very  close  to  them.  God  is  near  every  one  of  us. 
In  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 
But  who  has  not  learned  that  there  may  be  per- 
sonal nearness  co-existing  with  moral  and  spirit- 
ual distance  '?  How  often  husband  and  wife  have 
eaten  every  meal  at  the  same  table,  and  slept  to- 
gether every  night  in  the  same  bed,  with  their 
affections  as  far  from  each  other  as  could  be  those 
of  any  two  total  strangers.  How  often  between 
husband  and  wife  have  been  put  all  the  lands  and 
the  seas  of  a  hemisphere,  while  every  waking  hour 
of  the  day,  and  often  in  dreams,  they  were  near 
each  other. 

"  So  near  and  yet  so  far"  is  an  oft-quoted  ex- 
pression, to  signify  physical  contiguity  existing 
at  the  same  moment  with  spiritual  distance. 
"  So  far  and  yet  so  near  "  is  the  expression  of  an 
experience  very  common  to  those  who  love  the 
Lord.  We  cannot  draw  nearer  to  Him  who  is 
everywhere  present,  so  far  as  locality  is  con- 
cerned, but  we  can  draw  near  in  heart.  Jehovah 
was  as  near  to  the  people  on  the  plain  as  He  was 
to  Moses  on  the  Mount  ;  and  Moses  on  the 
Mount  with  God,  would  have  been  no  nearer  God 


2i6  TJic  Gospel  of  Covinion  Sense. 

if  the  heart  of  Moses  had  been  down  in  the  plain 
with  the  golden  calf. 

DRAWING   NIGH   TO   GOD. 

This  drawing  nigh  to  God  is  the  expression  of 
a  specific  operation  of  the  general  law  of  attrac- 
tion in  the  spiritual  world.  In  the  physical  world 
there  is  no  volition  ;  in  the  spiritual  world  there 
is.  You  may  will  to  lessen  the  attraction  which 
some  things  have  upon  you,  and  you  may  will  to 
increase  the  power  of  the  attraction  of  others. 
What  is  implied  in  drawing  near  to  God,  seems 
to  involve  a  cultivation  of  reverence  for  Him. 
That  reverence  presupposes  a  belief  in  His  ex- 
istence, in  the  greatness  of  His  character,  and  in 
the  claims  which  He  has  upon  our  souls. 

All  men  who  have  had  any  spiritual  expe- 
rience, know  that  it  is  possible  to  increase  this 
reverence  for  the  great  God.  The  word,  also,  is 
as  old  as  the  Old  Testament  Scripture.  It  means 
an  act  of  dedication  to  God.  We  go  forward  to 
Him.  The  use  of  all  spiritual  sanctuaries  is,  that 
by  going  to  the  holy  places,  a  man  may  indicate, 
and  at  the  same  time  increase,  the  approaches 
which  he  makes  reverentially  in  his  spirit  to 
God. 

It  implies  also  spiritual  intimacy  with  God,  and 
increasing  knowledge  of  His  character,  of  His 
ways,  of  His  will  toward  the  children  of  men.  It 
implies  an  alertness  of  the  intellect,  and  of  the 
heart,  toward  God's  truths  and  God's  love,  which 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Siense.  217 

may  be  represented  by  a  little  child's  quick  ear 
for  the  least  call  of  its  mother's  voice.  It  will  be 
shown  by  a  man'  feelings  everywhere  for  God, 
that  haply  he  may  find  Him  nigh,  and  by  his  in- 
tense desire  to  know,  as  the  smitten  Saul  of  Tar- 
sus did,  what  the  Lord  would  have  him  do. 

We  are  perpetually  meeting  in  society  with  two 
classes  of  men,  both  of  whom  are  seeking  peace 
and  happiness.  One  put  God  far  away  ;  when 
they  remember  God,  they  are  troubled.  They 
never  open  the  Bible,  they  never  kneel  in  prayer, 
they  never  assemble  themselves  with  the  saints. 
They  go  as  far  as  they  can  from  everything  which 
reminds  them  of  the  divine  sovereignty,  hoping, 
by  forgetfulness  of  God,  to  lose  also  a  sense  of 
their  own  danger.  There  are  other  men,  who 
watch  every  sign  that  stirs  in  the  heavens  above, 
and  in  the  earth  beneath,  that  if  possible  they 
may  detect  some  signal  of  the  hand  of  God,  and 
find  some  divine  finger  pointing  in  the  way  of 
right  ;  and  they  are  always  rewarded. 

ILLUSTRATED  BY  THE  CASE  OF  ABRAHAM. 

The  story  is  told  (Genesis  18)  of  the  patriarch 
Abraham's  sitting  in  the  tent  door,  in  the  heat  of 
the  day,  on  the  plains  of  Mamre.  He  lifted  up 
his  eyes  and  saw  three  men.  A  man  who  was 
always  looking  for  God  would  hail  any  new 
appearance,  as  probably  some  little  larger  open- 
ing in  the  veil  which  hangs  before  our  natural 
sense  and  excludes  the  spiritual  world.     And  so 


2i8  The  Gospel  of  Coinmon  Sense 

it  is  said  that  Abraham  ran  to  meet  them,  and 
bowed  himself  toward  the  ground.  If  he  had 
been  under  the  influence  of  an  evil  superstition, 
or  if  he  had  been  a  man  who  feared  to  know  more 
of  God,  he  would  have  run,  through  the  back  of 
his  tent,  out  into  the  plain  and  away  from  God, 
and  have  missed  that  blessed  interview  which 
changed  his  whole  life  and  became  a  benediction 
to  the  world. 

THE  CASE  OF  MOSES. 
If,  also,  Moses,  while  keeping  the  flock  of  Jethro, 
his  father-in-law,  in  the  backside  of  the  desert 
(Exodus  3)  had  turned  away  in  fright  from  the 
flaming  bush,  another  interview  would  have  been 
avoided,  an  interview  which  has  changed  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  This  instance  affords,  also,  an 
illustration  of  the  results  to  which  men  are  led 
who  are  devoutly  scientific.  He  had  stept  aside 
to  see  ivJiy  the  bush  was  not  burned.  He  was 
sure  God  was  doing  something  there,  and  he 
wished  to  see  what  it  was,  when  God,  out  of  the 
burning  bush,  called  his  name.  If  he  had  been 
foolishly  or  sinfully  superstitious,  he  would  have 
fled  in  dismay  down  the  crags  of  Horeb.  Instead  of 
this,  when  he  heard  his  name  called,  he  answered, 
"  Here  am  I."  Here  the  steps  of  the  right-minded 
man  are  shown.  First,  he  studies  what  God  is 
doing  ;  then  he  hears  what  God  is  saying,  and 
when  the  call  is  made  to  him,  he  gives  that  high 
ethical  answer,  "  Here   am  I."      There   was   no 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  219 

danger  that  he  should  become  too  intimate  with 
God  ;  there  is  no  danger  that  any  of  us  shall. 
God  taught  him  where  to  stop.  A  man  who 
wishes  to  be  a  really  true  man  will  keep  on 
going  when  God  starts  him,  and  never  cease  till 
God  halts  him  ;  when  halted,  he  will  stay  there 
forever,  or  until  God  command  him  to  move. 
THE  CASE  OF  ISAIAH. 

A  similar  experience  came  to  Isaiah,  in  the  year 
that  King  Uzziah  died,  when  he  saw  the  Lord 
sitting  upon  a  throne,  high  and  lifted  up,  His 
train  filling  the  temple,  surrounded  by  the  sera- 
phim, who  cried  to  one  another,  and  said,  "  Holy, 
holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  the  whole 
earth  is  full  of  His  glory,"  until  the  posts  of  the 
door  moved  at  the  voice  of  them  that  cried.  But 
he  did  not  fly  ;  he  simply  humbled  himself  unto 
God,  and  a  live  coal  was  taken  by  the  hands  of 
a  seraph,  and  laid  on  his  lips,  till  his  iniquity  was 
taken  away  and  his  sin  purged  (Isa.  6). 

Now  how  shall  zae  draw  near  to  God  ?  Where 
is  God  ?  God  is  in  Christ  (2  Cor.  5  :  19).  The 
nearer  I  can  get  to  this  blessed  personality,  in  my 
understanding  of  His  true  character,  in  my  imbib- 
ing of  His  spirit,  in  my  intimate  co-operation  with 
His  plans  for  human  advancement,  I  shall  be 
drawing  nearer  to  God.  There  are  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures ;  they  have  become  to  the  modern  Church 
what  the  pavilion  of  Jehovah  was  to  His  ancient 
people;  namely,  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  of  light 


220  TJic  Gospel  of  Connnon  Sense. 

by  night.  I  draw  near,  therefore,  unto  God  when 
I  bring  myself  close  to  all  the  promises  God  hath 
made  to  me  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  ;  and  I  draw 
near  to  God  when  I  give  my  affectionate  belief  to 
all  the  doctrines  which  are  taught  in  the  Sacred 
Scriptures.  The  one  is  my  cloud  to  protect  me 
from  evil  while  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  day, 
and  the  other  is  my  light  to  brighten  me  in  the 
night  of  my  trouble.  "The  mind  of  the  Spirit  is 
the  word  of  God  ;"  the  heart  of  Jesus  is  the  word 
of  God  ;  the  truth  of  the  Father  is  the  word  of 
God.  As  I  bring  my  intellect,  my  heart,  and  my 
life,  closer  and  closer  to  the  blessed  Book,  I  am 
drawing  nigher  and  nigher  to  God. 

The  law  of  attraction  prevails  here  also,  and 
brings  from  the  pen  of  James  the  blessed  assurance 
that,  "  if  we  draw  near  to  God,  He  will  draw  near 
to  us  "  ;  and  He  Himself  hath  revealed  to  us,  in  all 
the  record  the  Bible  gives  of  His  intercourse  with 
His  saints,  how  one  step  of  theirs  toward  God  is 
helped  by  the  rapid  approach  of  God  unto  them. 
Nowhere  in  Scripture  is  this  more  touchingly  shown 
than  in  the  many-sided  story  of  the  return  of 
the  Prodigal  Son.  Ruined,  humiliated,  degraded, 
and  dejected,  he  slowly  comes  toward  his  father's 
house.  He  knows  how  good  his  father  is  ;  but 
knows,  also,  how  vile  he  is  himself.  When  the 
father  sees  him,  he  does  not  re-enter  his  house  and 
shut  the  portals  of  his  mansion  against  his  boy. 
He  does  not  go  down  the  avenue  with  slow,  ma- 


TJic  Gospel  of  Conunoii  Sense.  221 

jestic  steps,  not  moving  one  foot  until  his  son  has 
moved  two  ;  but  on  the  wings  of  loving  merciful- 
ness and  fatherly  affection,  he  rushes  to  his  son. 
And  while  that  son  does  not  dare  to  look  him 
straight  in  the  eyes,  much  less  to  put  his  soiled 
hands  on  the  sacred  person  of  his  father,  the 
father  wraps  his  son  in  the  arms  of  his  love,  and 
covers  him  with  the  caresses  of  his  affection.  So, 
the  man  who  draws  near  to  God,  God  draws  with 
groat  rapidity  toward  Himself. 

CLEANSED  HANDS. 
"  Cleanse  the  hands,  ye  sinners."  In  Scripture 
language  this  phrase  is  always  used  to  mean  the 
putting  away  of  evil  deeds.  As  the  feet  repre- 
sent the  course  which  a  man  takes,  and  show 
the  direction  of  his  life,  the  hands  are  always 
known  as  the  instruments  for  doing.  The  cleans- 
ing of  the  hands,  therefore,  signifies  the  putting 
away  of  evil  deeds.  One  must  cease  to  do  evil 
before  one  can  learn  to  do  well.  The  very  order 
in  which  James  puts  the  ideas  here,  is  the  order 
of  the  Old  Testament  Scripture.  Those  who  as- 
cend into  the  hill  of  the  Lord  are  those  who  have 
clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart  (Ps.  24  :  4).  And 
David  said,  "I  will  wash  my  hands  in  innocency ; 
so  will  I  compass  Thine  altar,  O  Lord."  But  ex- 
terior reformation  is  of  but  little  help  to  a  man  ; 
the  work  must  go  deeper  ;  his  heart  must  be 
cleansed.  If  all  the  badness  of  a  past  life  could 
be  taken  and  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  sea,  there 


222  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

is  still  the  corrupt  heart,  which  will  reproduce  all 
the  evil  of  a  life.  The  fruit  of  the  tree  will  be  of 
the  nature  of  the  tree,  and  it  is  intimated  that 
while  the  sin  of  the  life  comes  from  wicked  ac- 
tivity, the  sin  of  the  heart  comes  from  double- 
mindedness.  There  must  be  no  vacillation.  The 
love  of  the  world  must  be  given  up  thor- 
oughly ;  there  is  no  sanctification  till  all  affec- 
tions are  given  to  God.  The  want  of  purity  of 
heart  is  evidently  produced  by  double-minded- 
ness.  None  can  come  to  these  experiences  who 
are  not  afflicted,  who  do  not  afflict  themselves, 
whose  grief  is  not  really  deep,  the  remembrance 
of  whose  sins  does  not  bow  them  down  to  the 
very  ground. 

When  conviction  for  a  man's  sin  takes  hold  of 
him,  it  is  so  natural  that  he  should  attempt  to 
comfort  himself  before  getting  rid  of  his  sins  ; 
and  it  is  because  there  is  some  sort  of  temporary 
comfort,  at  least  some  forgetfulness,  to  be  found 
by  engaging  in  other  things,  that  men  do  not  go 
immediately  with  penitence  and  faith  to  God,  for 
absolution  and  for  cleansing.  A  very  striking 
instance  of  this  is  recorded  in  Isaiah  (22  :  12), 
"And  in  that  day  did  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts 
call  to  weeping,  and  to  mourning,  and  to  bald- 
ness, and  to  girding  with  sackcloth.  And  behold, 
joy  and  gladness,  selling  oxen  and  killing  sheep, 
eating  flesh  and  drinking  wine.  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  to-morrow  we  shall  die."     jAMES  warns 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Settse.  223 

us  against  this  fatal  fallacy,  this  trerhendous  mis- 
take of  endeavoring  to  narcotize  our  convictions 
by  sinful  pleasures.  When,  under  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel,  our  souls  are  struck  with  the  ar- 
rows of  conviction  for  our  sins,  let  us  not  go  out 
and  attempt  to  drown  those  disturbing  convic- 
tions in  wine,  and  wear  away  those  salutary  dis- 
tresses in  wassail.  That  is  what  was  done  in  the 
days  of  Isaiah.  God  knew  what  was  necessary 
for  the  souls  of  His  people;  but  instead  of  obey- 
ing Him,  they  endeavored  to  put  out  of  their 
minds  the  call  of  God  which  they  were  disobey- 
ing, and  so  they  were  destroyed. 

If  some  one  could  have  come  upon  their  feasts, 
and  turned  their  laughter  into  mourning  and  their 
joy  into  sadness,  they  might  have  been  saved. 
How  instable  a  thing  is  laughter  after  all.  There 
is  a  time  to  laugh  and  a  sense  of  humor  is  whole- 
some; but  when  one  comes  to  think  carefully  over 
his  past  life  and  recall  his  seasons  of  hilarity,  how 
little  they  appear  to  have  contributed  to  the  up- 
building of  his  character.  Jokes  and  witticisms 
which  gave  us  our  laughter  have  made  almost 
no  permanent  impression  upon  our  character  or 
destiny. 

Nothing  can  be  a  greater  mistake  than  to  sup- 
pose that  religious  humility  is  at  all  akin  to  in- 
tellectual or  spiritual  degradation.  He  that 
humbles  himself  before  God,  need  humble  himself 
before  no  man.     It  is  impossible  to  think  of  the 


224  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

archangel  in  heaven  as  a  degraded  being  or  the 
cherubim  and  seraphim  as  degraded  beings,  be- 
cause they  all  veil  their  faces  with  their  wings 
and  bow  before  the  Father  of  eternity,  as  He  sits 
on  the  supreme  throne  of  the  universe,  and  cry  to 
Him,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  Almighty  ; 
heaven  and  earth  are  full  of  the  majesty  of  Thy 
glory."  That  leaves  no  place  for  archangelic  or 
seraphic  or  cherubic  glory,  and  none  of  those  lofty 
beings  desire  any  glory  that  is  apart  from  that  of 
God. 

EVIL   SPEAKING. 

In  the  next  verses  (it,  12),  James  warns  his 
brethren  against  evil  speaking. 

''Do  n  t  speak  one  against  another,  brethren. 
He  zvho  speakcth  against  his  brother  and  con- 
demnetJi  his  brother,  speaketh  against  the  laiv  and 
condemneth  the  law.  But  if  thou  condemnest  the 
law,  tkou  art  not  a  doer  of  the  law,  but  a  Judge. 
One  there  is,  a  Law-giver  able  to  save  and  to  de- 
stroy.   Thou,  who  art  thou,  that  judge  st  another  f 

There  are  few  more  evident  and  more  painful 
indications  of  the  corruption  of  our  nature  than 
the  general  tendency  to  detraction.  In  all  ages 
of  the  world,  men  seem  to  be  more  able  to  dis- 
play their  wit  and  their  other  intellectual  resources 
in  calumny  than  in  eulogy.  When  a  man  comes  to 
you,  and  says,  "  I  heard  a  man  speak  about  you 
yesterday,"  you  immediately  take  it  for  granted 
that  that  man  said  something  against  you.     It  is 


TJie  Gospel  of  Coniinon  Sense.  225 

painful  to  note  that  the  tendency  of  human  nature 
is  exactly  adverse  to  a  common-sense  principle, 
which  is  assumed  in  all  Christian  courts  of  law, 
in  criminal  cases,  namely,  that  a  man  must  be 
presumed  to  be  innocent  until  he  be  proved  to  be 
guilty.  In  Christian  society,  the  mode  of  proce- 
dure is  that  in  Turkish  courts,  namely,  the  assump- 
tion that  the  defendant  is  guilty,  rolling  upon  him 
the  necessity  of  establishing  his  innocence.  Few 
things  can  be  conceived  more  hurtful  than  this. 
Moreover,  in  most  instances  of  detraction,  the 
person  is  absent,  and  so  ordinarily  has  not  an  op- 
portunity of  even  attempting  the  gravely  difficult 
task  of  establishing  his  innocence. 

SPIRIT   OF   CONTRADICTION. 

Akin  to  this  is  the  spirit  of  contradiction,  which 
leads  so  many  people  to  take  it  for  granted  that 
whatever  opinion  or  sentiment  has  originated  with 
another  must  therefore  be  wrong.  These  two 
courses  of  conduct  lead  to  very  many  of 
the  ills  of  society.  Detraction  is  hurtful  every 
way.  It  hurts  the  detractor  by  increasing  the 
power  of  the  habit  of  evil-speaking.  It  injures 
the  listener  by  increasing  the  pessimistic  tenden- 
cies of  his  own  heart  and  his  want  of  confidence 
in  human  nature.  It  injures  the  absent  by  a 
denial  of  his  right  of  self-defence. 
EVIL   HEARING. 

Many  of  the  injurious  effects  of  evil-speaking 
might  be  avoided  if  men  could  be  made  to  feel  the 


226  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

sin  of  evil-hearing.  To  listen  to  the  calumny  is 
only  a  less  sin  than  to  utter  it.  If  every  Christian 
man  determined  that  he  would  immediately  rise 
and  leave  the  room  the  very  moment  any  one 
began  to  speak  evil  of  the  absent,  the  rebuke 
would  go  far  to  silence  the  voice  of  the  detractor. 
It  is  because  we  love  to  hear  evil  of  our  neighbor 
that  his  neighbor  loves  to  speak  evil  of  him.  He 
sees  it  gives  us  pleasure,  and  the  conversationalist 
has  his  delight  in  the  enjoyment  which  he  sees  he 
imparts  to  his  listener. 

THE  MOSAIC  LAW. 
James  strengthens  his  appeal  to  his  brethren  by 
calling  their  attention  to  th^  law — which  here  may 
mean  either  the  Mosaic  law  by  itself,  or,  the 
Mosaic  law  of  right  completed  by  the  Christian 
law  of  love.  If  it  refer  alone  to  the  former,  this 
is  the  last  time  that  the  law  of  Moses  is  mentioned 
in  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  That  law  has  very 
severe  denunciations  of  calumny,  slander  and 
other  evil-speaking ;  so  that  he  who  is  guilty  of  it, 
condemns  the  Mosaic  law.  If  the  latter,  then 
Christians  are  all  the  more  guilty  when  they 
indulge  in  evil-speaking,  because,  while  the  law 
came  by  Moses,  grace  and  truth  came  by  Jesus 
Christ.  Those  to  whom  James  wrote,  prided 
themselves  on  their  zeal  for  the  law ;  ''  but,"  says 
he,  "  habitual  evil-speaking  is  a  course  of  conduct 
which  denies  that  the  law  which  forbids  it  is  a 
good  law."     An  evil-speaker  says,  by  his  course  of 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  227 

conduct,  either  that  Moses  and  Christ  were  wrong 
in  their  judgment,  or  that  neither  has  any  au- 
thority over  the  detractor's  conscience.  It  is  to 
be  noticed  here,  that  the  phrases  "  he  that 
speaketh  against  his  brother  "  and  "  condemneth 
his  brother,"  do  not  indicate  a  soHtary  perform- 
ance of  the  act,  but  do  point  to  the  habit  of  evil- 
speaking.  But  we  must  remind  ourselves,  how 
difficult  it  is  to  speak  evil  of  a  neighbor  occasion- 
ally without  falling  into  the  dreadful  habit. 
ONE   LAWGIVER. 

He  furthermore  strengthens  his  appeal  to  them 
by  calling  their  attention  to  that  One  who  is  the 
supreme  law-giver ;  and  the  words  which  he  uses, 
show  that  he  certainly  means  Jesus  the  Christ  as 
the  law-giver,  and  His  Gospel  as  the  law,  even  if 
Moses  be  included.  Christ  is  the  one  law-giver  to 
His  Church,  and  no  man  has  a  right  to  make  a 
law  for  believers  which  Christ  Himself  has  not 
distinctly  made.  So  when  these  worldly-minded, 
envious  and  calumniating  Hebrew-Christians  un- 
dertook to  lay  down  laws  for  the  guidance  of  their 
brethren,  and  undertook  to  judge  and  condemn 
their  brethren  by  their  own  standard,  they  were 
assuming  the  tremendous  responsibility  which 
belongs  to  Jehovah's  Christ. 

No  men  and  no  body  of  men  who  have  not  the 
ability  to  enforce  laws  are  empowered  to  make 
laws.  Now  there  is  only  one  in  the  universe  who 
is  able  to  save  and  to  destroy  a  man's  spirit.     No 


228  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

private  Christian  can  do  it ;  no  ecclesiastic,  high 
or  low,  can  do  it ;  no  Church  councils  have  power 
to  make  any  law  to  bind  any  conscience,  because 
none  of  these  can  either  lift  a  soul  to  heaven  or 
cast  it  down  to  hell.  There  is  One  Law-giver  and 
One  Judge  and  One  Executive  in  the  universe, 
and  that  is  the  Lord.  What  a  terrible  thing  it  is 
for  any  man  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the 
One  who  was  enthroned  on  Sinai  as  the  world's 
moral  law-giver,  and  was  enthroned  on  Golgotha 
as  the  world's  spiritual  Savior,  and  shall  be  en- 
throned on  the  judgment-seat  on  the  last  day  as 
the  universal  Judge. 

THE   RESTLESS   SPIRIT. 

In  the  time  of  the  writer  of  this  epistle,  those 
Hebrews  who  had  become  Christians  were  much 
infected  with  the  restless  spirit  of  those  who  had 
continued  as  Israelites  of  the  strictest  set,  and 
with  them  were  scattered  abroad,  wandering  about 
amongst  all  peoples  ;  and  because  they  had  no 
home,  and  were  not  long  enough  settled  for 
agricultural  pursuits,  their  passion  and  their  skill 
for  trading  grew  and  carried  them  everywhere. 
They  were  betrayed  into  a  presumptuous  con- 
fidence that  all  things  would  continue  as  they 
were.  This  led  them  into  forming  plans  of  the 
future  without  reference  to  God  ;  and  to  this  fault 
James  calls  their  attention  (4,  13-16): 

"  Here,  noiv,  ye  tvho  are  accustomed  to  say,  '  To- 
day and  to-morrow,  and  tve  shall  Joiirney  to  this 


The  Gospel  of  Couiuion  Sense."  229 

or  that  city,  and  ivork  there  a  year,  and  traffic,  and 
get  gain ; '  ye,  tvho  do  not  knoxv  aught  of  to- 
morrozv.     (  Why,  what  kind  of  thing  is  your  life  ? 

Why,  a  vapor  it  is,  which  for  a  little  time  is  in 
sight,  but  even  thenis  vajiishing.)  Instead  of  your 
saying,  '  If  the  Lord  will,  lue  shall  both  live  and  do 
this  or  that.'  But  nozv  you  rejoice  in  your  boast- 
ings.    All  such  rejoicing  is  evil.'^ 

The  conditions  of  the  times  were  such  that  or- 
dinarily the  Jewish  trader  took  the  goods  that 
were  cheap  in  one  place,  and  carried  them  to  an- 
other, where  they  were  in  more  demand,  and 
consequently  brought  a  higher  price  ;  and  so  he 
would  go  from  place  to  place,  buying  in  one  and 
selling  in  another,  all  the  while  accompanying 
his  commodities.  This  involved  his  stopping  a 
short  time  in  each  place  visited,  that  he  might 
complete  his  mercantile  transaction.  Thus  he 
would  move  to  Damascus,  Antioch,  Alexandria, 
Smyrna,  Corinth,  wherever  he  could  buy  at  the 
smallest  and  sell  at  the  largest  price. 
SELF-CONFIDENCE. 
It  is  easy  to  see  how  such  a  merchant  would 
glide  into  self-confidence,  and  forget  to  calculate 
for  casualties  in  making  schedules  of  journeyings 
for  himself;  saying,  "I  will  start  to-day,  or,  if 
that  be  not  convenient,  I  will  start  to-morrow, 
and  go  first  to  this  city,  and  then  to  that  ;  and 
when  I  reach  the  designated  place,  I  will  enter 
upon  selling  and  buying  of  merchandise  ;  in  doing 


230  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

which  my  former  experience  justifies  me  in  be- 
lieving that  I  shall  increase  my  estate."  Such 
entire  self-confidence  was  injurious  to  that  state 
of  mind  a  Christian  should  maintain,  in  which  he 
would  lean  wholly  upon  God  ;  daily  praying, 
"  Thy  will  be  done,"  and  every  day  striving  to 
fulfil  his  own  prayer,  as  much  as  in  him  lay,  by 
doing  the  will  of  God. 

James  recalls  them  from  their  folly  by  the  sharp 
question,  "  What  kind  of  a  thing  is  your  life  .-*  "  Is 
it  like  the  Appian  Way,  a  road  laid  on  the  solid 
ground,  which  you  can  measure  mile  by  mile, 
which  you  can  pass  over  to-day  and  come  back 
twenty  years  from  this  and  find  the  same  road 
still  there  .■'  No  ;  human  life  is  never  such  a 
thing  as  that.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  like  a  vapor, 
a  vapor  which  may  rise  into  the  air,  and  spread 
itself  out  largely,  and  become  splendid  with  the 
rays  of  the  rising  or  setting  sun  ;  but  still  it  is 
a  vapor  ;  it  does  not  continue  for  two  successive 
minutes  in  the  same  form.  It  is  a  thing  which  is 
visible  to  the  eye  ;  but  while  one  is  looking  upon 
it,  it  is  in  the  very  moment  of  vanishing.  To 
rely  upon  that  as  a  solid  thing,  is  to  build  castles 
in  the  air.  The  temper  of  mind  and  the  mode  of 
speech  which  befit  a  Christian  are  in  the  saying, 
"  If  the  Lord  will,  we  shall  both  live  and  do  the 
things  which  we  propose." 

THE   "  DEO   VOLENTE." 

We  are  not  to  understand  that  every  time  a  Chris- 
tian man  speaks  of  his  projects  he  is  to  bring  in  a 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  231 

Deo  volente  phrase.  If  that  were  done  every  time 
an  intention  were  announced  it  is  obvious  that  it 
would  soon  make  conversation  ridiculous,  if  any 
attention  were  paid  to  it  ;  if  the  words  were 
spoken  without  attention,  they  would  degenerate 
into  cant,  that  is,  the  use  of  words  which  we  had 
emptied  of  their  meaning,  and  would  also  savor 
of  profanity,  because  it  would  be  taking  the  name 
of  God  in  vain. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  if  there  be  not  formed  in 
our  spirits  the  habit  of  continual  reference  to  the 
will  of  God,  and  continual  reliance  upon  His  per 
sonal  protection  and  providence,  there  will  come 
into  the  spirit  a  boasting  which  will  be  neither 
beautiful  nor  profitable.  One  thing  is  certain,  we 
must  always  take  God  into  the  calculation  ;  we 
must  always  have  reference  to  His  will  ;  we  shall 
thus  secure  for  ourselves  the  divine  guidance,  for 
the  promise  is  that  if  in  all  our  ways  we  acknowl- 
edge the  Lord,  He  will  direct  our  paths  (Prov. 
3  :6);  and  then  the  disappointments  of  life  will  not 
smite  us  with  such  tremendous  force.  We  are  not 
principals,  we  are  agents.  We  are  doing  the  work 
of  God  under  the  direction  of  God.  If  our  work 
miscarry,  we  can  refer  what  seems  the  mishap  to 
God,  and  thus  change  it  into  what  may  be  the 
very  best  thing  for  us  and  for  all  men. 

The  moral  lessons  of  this  admonition  are  as 
timely  and  as  binding  in  our  days  as  in  the  days  in 
which  it  was  written,  and  perhaps  more  so.    There 


232  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

never  has  been  an  age  in  which  there  was  so 
much  traveling  as  in  ours.  More  persons  went 
from  one  place  to  another  last  year  than  in  any- 
other  year  since  the  world  began.  There  were 
more  journeys  undertaken  last  year  than  ever  be- 
fore. It  is  an  age  of  movement ;  the  invention 
of  modes  of  motion  is  the  passion  of  our  times. 
The  extension  of  railways  on  the  planet  during 
the  past  decade  has  been  something  enormous. 
Never  did  so  many  people  run  to  and  fro  as  are 
so  running  now. 

The  same  is  true  of  trade.  More  people  are 
shipping  and  receiving  goods  than  ever  before. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  spirit  of  the  feudal 
system  made  trade  below  the  dignity  of  persons 
of  what  was  called  "  quality."  In  modern  times, 
in  the  Southern  States  of  our  country,  the  same 
spirit  prevailed  before  the  Civil  War  ;  so  that  no 
lady  ever  engaged  in  any  other  work  than  house- 
wifery, no  lady  would  even  sell  a  poem  or  a  story 
for  money.  But  almost  every  man  trades  in  Eng- 
land and  in  the  South  to-day.  Men  are  keeping 
shop  whose  grandfathers  would  have  considered  it 
more  disgrace  to  have  bought  and  sold  than  to 
have  committed  almost  any  kind  of  sin,  men 
whose  fathers  could  boast  that  for  five  hundred 
years  not  a  single  ancestor  had  ever  made  a  shil- 
ling by  trade.  To-day  women,  with  noble  blood 
in  their  veins,  are  opening  shops  in  London  for 
millinery  and  other  dry  goods.     Business  is  done 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  233 

on  a  larger  scale  than  ever  before  ;  bargains  are 
made  to  amounts  that  exceed  the  worth  of  prin- 
cipalities. Where  men  used  to  buy,  as  it  were, 
handfuls  of  sand,  men  are  to-day  buying  and  selling 
great  mountain  ranges.  If  ever  there  were  a  time 
in  which  the  injunction  of  James  should  be  heeded, 
this  is  the  time. 

Into  every  syndicate  God  should  be  taken  as  a 
partner.  Every  journey  should  be  undertaken 
under  His  direction.  All  success  should  be 
ascribed  to  Him,  not  necessarily  openly  and  by 
word  of  mouth,  certainly  never  ostentatiously,  but 
as  certainly,  always  really  and  devoutly.  Other- 
wise our  boastings  will  be  evil,  and  will  confirm 
us  in  that  self-confidence  which  by  and  by  will 
be  our  destruction. 


X. 

The  Sin  of  Uselessness. 

CHAPTER   IV.,    17. 
A   PRINCIPLE   OF   VARIED   APPLICATION. 

WE  can  imagine  that,  after  delivering  all 
these  precepts,  J  AMES  could  fancy  hear- 
ing his  brethren  reply,  "  Oh,  all  this  is 
very  true ;  we  have  read  it  in  the  Scriptures."  And 
that  leads  him  to  utter  in  one  sentence  a  principle 
of  varied  application,  and  of  a  very  wide-spread 
importance  : 

"  Therefore,  to  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin.'' 

Perhaps  few  of  us  have  considered  what  multi- 
tudes there  are  everywhere  who  rely  upon  their 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  while  that  knowledge  is 
absolutely  inoperative.  They  never  "do."  They 
hear,  but  do  not  put  into  practice.  They  read,  but 
they  do  not  allow  it  to  regulate  their  lives.  What 
most  men  in  Christendom  need  to-day  is  not 
so  much  more  instruction  in  morals  as  a  greater 
stimulation  of  conscience.  It  is  a  tremendous 
responsibility,  which  men  assume,  to  hear  three  or 
four  religious  discourses  a  week,  while  they  are 
allowing  no  portion  of  the  truth  to  have  any 
influence  on  their  practical  lives.     It  is  a  sin  to 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  235 

hold  back  in  my  intellect  a  truth  which  I  ought  to 
allow  to  affect  my  emotions  and  to  regulate  my 
intercourse  with  my  fellow-men. 

SINS  OF  "commission"  AND  "OMISSION." 
This  is  so  important  a  subject  that  it  must  be 
dwelt  upon.  How  common  is  the  classification 
of  sins  into  those  of  commission  and  of  omission  ; 
and  how  common  is  the  mistake  that  the  former 
are  the  more  hurtful.  Even  in  our  prayers  we 
ask  pardon  for  "our  sins  of  commission"  and 
"  our  sins  of  omission,"  and  the  tones  of  our  voice 
show  that  the  latter  are  put  apart,  as  in  a  paren- 
thesis, and  are  considered  not  at  all  heinous. 
We  must  arouse  ourselves  to  the  truth  that  sins  of 
omission  may  be  much  worse  than  the  worst  sins 
of  commission,  as  they  are  called.  These  latter, 
such  as  murder  and  adultery,  may  be  committed 
in  the  heat  of  passion,  and  may  break  out  perhaps 
only  once  in  a  man's  life  ;  his  character  may 
then  be  like  a  house  which  has  been  smitten  by 
a  storm-blast,  having  a  chimney  knocked  down, 
or  the  corner  of  the  roof  torn  off;  but  sins  of 
omission  are  like  a  dry  rot  which  reduces  the 
whole  edifice  to  such  a  state  that  at  any  moment 
it  may  drop  into  a  heap  of  dust. 

In  studying  this  subject  we  may  consider  the 
classification  of  the  commandments  in  the  moral 
law  into  those  which  enjoin  and  those  which 
forbid  ;  those  which  say  "Thou  shalt,"  and  those 
which  say  "  Thou  shalt  not."     And  we  are  think- 


236  The  Gospel  of  Couuiion  Sense. 

ing,  and  talking,  and  acting  as  if  the  violation  of 
the  latter  were  all  the  sins  worth  accounting. 
For  instance,  we  never  for  a  moment  doubt  that 
to  violate  the  commandment  "Thou  shalt  not 
steal,"  or  the  commandment  "Thou  shalt  not 
kill,"  or  the  commandment  "Thou  shalt  not  com- 
mit adultery,"  is  a  sin.  But  who  charges  his  con- 
science equally  with  the  violation  of  the  com- 
mandment "  Remember  that  thou  keep  holy  the 
Sabbath  Day,"  or  "  Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother".''  And  so,  if  a  man  has  observed  every 
one  of  the  Ten  Commandments  which  has  the 
word  not  in  it,  and  is  suddenly  arrested  as  a  sin- 
ner, he  turns  upon  his  accuser  with  the  surprised 
inquiry,  "Why,  what  have  I  done.''"  and  does 
not  perceive  that  that  very  question  points  to 
the  ground  of  his  condemnation.  Yes,  that  is  a 
much  more  important  question  than  the  other, 
"  What  have  I  not  done  .''  "  It  is  tJie  question  that 
shall  be  urged  upon  the  conscience  at  the  final 
judgment,  "  What  Jiast  thou  done  }  " 

We  must  remind  ourselves  that  sin  consists  not 
only  in  disregarding  the  prohibitions,  but  also  in 
failing  to  come  up  to  the  requirements,  of  the 
positive  injunctions  of  the  law  of  God.  We, 
whose  lives  have  always  been  perfectly  honest  as 
touching  the  property  of  other  people,  are  to  re- 
member that  the  same  authority  which  binds  us 
to  honesty  in  the  Fourth  Commandment,  equally 
binds   us  to  beneficence    in    the    commandment 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  237 

"Do  good  unto  all  men."  Now,  if  I  have  had  an 
opportunity  to  do  good  and  have  not  done  it,  I 
am  just  as  certainly  a  sinner  as  if  I  had  had  an 
opportunity  to  abstract  my  neighbor's  property 
and  had  stolen  it. 

THE  PROCESS  OF  DESCENT. 

Let  us  trace  the  history  of  the  fall.  The  ac- 
count given  us  in  Holy  Scripture  shows  that  man 
was  first  led  away  from  righteousness  and  then 
led  into  sin.  The  history  of  that  one  transaction 
is  an  epitome  of  the  lives  of  good  people  in  all 
ages,  who  have  fallen  away.  Sins  of  omission 
precede  sins  of  commission,  and  as  invariably,  sins 
of  commission  succeed  sins  of  omission.  The 
man  that  neglects  the  study  of  the  Sacred  Script- 
ures and  the  cultivation  of  a  prayerful  spirit  in  pri- 
vate, is  a  man  whose  life  comes  to  be  stained  with 
violations  of  those  commandments  which  forbid 
certain  courses  of  conduct. 

THE  PROCESS  OF  ASCENT. 

So  when  a  man  is  converted  he  retraces  these 
steps.  He  first  "  ceases  to  do  evil "  and  then 
"  learns  to  do  well."  Such  also  is  the  effect  of  the 
atonement,  which  we  have  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  It  does  these  two  things  in  their  order  : 
first,  it  secures  a  man  his  pardon;  and  then  it  sets 
him  upon  paths  of  usefulness.  Mere  harmlessness 
may  be  possible  for  inanimate  things.  A  stone, 
or  the  stump  of  a  tree  on  the  inaccessible  height 
of  a  mountain  may  do  no  harm  to  anybody.     But 


238  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

how  is  it  possible  that  any  living  thing  should 
maintain  that  position  in  the  universe  ?  More 
especially,  how  is  it  possible  that  a  sentient 
being,  with  a  conscience  and  such  other  activities 
as  belong  to  man  as  man,  could  remain  in  the 
neutral  position  of  a  stock  or  a  stone  ?  Every 
human  being  is  either  doing  good  or  doing  evil 
every  day  of  his  life. 

At  the  point  of  time  when  a  soul  receives  the 
pardon  of  his  sins,  he  enters  on  a  new  spiritual  de- 
parture. From  that  moment  it  is  impossible  that 
he  shall  lead  a  life  of  mere  uselessness.  If  he 
could,  one  day  in  such  a  state  would  be  a  day  of 
sin. 

Is  there  anything  which  stands  out  more 
distinctly  in  the  teachings  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  than  the  doctrine  of  the  sin  of  not  doing 
good }  Is  there  anything  upon  which,  by  pre- 
cept and  by  picturesque  illustration  in  parable, 
He  laid  more  and  more  emphasis  than  upon  the 
teaching  that  a  man  must  not  only  be  harmless, 
but  that  he  must  be  good  and  do  good  .'' 
THE   ACTED   PARABLE. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  of  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  is  an  unspoken  parable  taught  by  one  of 
His  most  impressive  acts.  One  morning  He  saw 
a  fig-tree  in  the  road.  The  tree  had  leaves,  and 
therefore,  according  to  its  nature,  should  have 
had  fruit.  Jesus  cursed  it  ;  it  was  the  only  thing 
He  cursed  in  all  His  \vonderful  career  ;  and  the 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  239 

tree  withered.  What  was  there  in  this  tree  which 
brought  such  a  doom  ?  Was  the  fig-tree  a  bad 
growth  amongst  the  trees  ?  On  the  contrary, 
the  tree  itself,  when  it  bore  fruit,  gave  that  which 
is  sweet  to  the  taste  and  nourishing  to  the  body. 
Was  the  tree  doing  any  harm  ?  Was  it  exuding 
poison,  which  might  fall  lii<e  the  distillation  of  the 
upas  tree  on  the  eyes  of  the  sleeper  below,  or  be 
destructive  to  the  birds  and  insects  that  alighted 
amid  its  leaves?  Was  it  even  keeping  other 
plants  from  growing  ?  Is  there  the  slightest  in- 
timation that  there  was  anything  harmful  in  the 
existence  of  the  tree  by  the  road-side  ?  Not  the 
slightest.  But  there  is  a  fearful  lesson  of  the 
wrong  of  unfruitfulness,  which,  in  the  case  of  this 
tree,  was  aggravated  by  the  additional  sin  of  pre- 
tence. A  fig-tree  that  has  not  figs  has  no  right 
to  leaves.  There  is  a  subsidiary  lesson  here  :  one 
of  the  dangers  of  unfruitfulness  is  the  temptation 
which  it  affords  to  hypocrisy.  So  wide-spread  is 
the  lesson  that  all  religious  people  should  lead 
lives  of  beneficence.  When  a  man  stands  in  the 
Church  and  does  no  good,  he  is  very  liable  to  put 
on  the  pretence  of  usefulness,  as  the  tree  did. 
THE   DESTRUCTIVE   NAPKIN. 

There  is  the  well-known  parable  of  Jesus  (Mat- 
thew 25)  of  the  talents  which  a  lord  had  com- 
mitted to  his  servants. 

He  to  whom  had  been  committed  five,  doubled 
them  ;  he  who  had  two,  doubled  them ;  and  the 


240  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

latter  received  precisely  the  commendation  which 
was  given  to  the  former ;  showing  that  it  is  not 
the  amount  in  the  result,  but  it  is  the  activity  in 
the  life,  which  the  Lord  approves.  There  was  a 
third  servant  to  whom  one  talent  had  been  com- 
mitted. When  the  lord  came  to  take  account  of 
his  servants,  the  man  with  the  one  talent  came 
forward  with  it,  and  returned  it  precisely  as  he  had 
received  it.  There  was  not  the  slightest  portion 
lost.  In  weight  and  value  it  was  exactly  as  it  was 
when  months  or  years  ago  his  lord  had  put  it  in 
his  hand.  He  had  not  spent  any  portion  of  his 
lord's  money  upon  his  desires  or  his  needs.  No 
selfishness  had  been  sufficient  to  induce  him  to 
run  away  with  his  lord's  money.  No  companion- 
ship had  induced  him,  by  any  social  seduction,  to 
waste  any  of  his  lord's  money  in  riotous  living. 
He  had  not  been  careless  of  his  talent,  allowing 
others  to  take  away  his  lord's  money.  He  had 
preserved  it  by  carefully  wrapping  it  in  a  napkin 
and  putting  it  where  no  thief  could  break  in.  He 
had  guarded  it  vigilantly  and  preserved  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  hiding-place.  He  considered  himself 
a  brilliant  example  of  a  harmless  man.  And  he 
was.  When  the  day  of  account  came,  he  appeared 
promptly  and,  with  an  air  of  great  self-satisfaction, 
more  so  apparently  than  either  of  his  fellow- 
servants,  he  cheerfully  said  to  his  lord,  "  There, 
take — that  is  thine." 

He  believed  his  lord  to  be  a  severe  master,  and  yet 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  241 

he  felt  that  if,  after  long  absence,  upon  his  return, 
his  master  should  find  exactly  the  talent  which 
the  servant  returned  all  unhurt,  there  could  be  no 
fault  found.  And  yet  how  tremendous  were  the 
words  of  the  master  in  reproof  of  his  servant ! 
What  was  his  fault  ?  Nothing  but  this  :  that  he 
had  had  an  opportunity  to  increase  something 
committed  to  his  care,  and  he  had  neglected  to 
make  such  improvement.  And  yet  he  fell  under 
the  condemnation  of  such  a  sentence  as  this  from 
the  lips  of  his  master  :  "  Take  therefore  the  talent 
from  him  and  give  it  unto  him  which  has  ten 
talents  ;  for  unto  every  one  that  hath  shall  be  given, 
and  he  shall  have  abundance,  but  from  him  that 
hath  not,  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he 
hath  ;  and  cast  ye  the  unprofitable  servant  into 
outer  darkness.  There  shall  be  weeping  and 
gnashing  of  teeth." 

SIN  IN  PURPLE. 
That  outer  darkness  reappears  in  the  parable  of 
the  rich  man  and  Lazarus  (Luke  16).  What- 
ever opinion  may  be  held  as  to  whether  the 
conclusion  of  the  story  lay  in  this  world  or  in  the 
world  to  come,  there  can  be  no  difficulty  as  to 
this  :  that  the  intention  is  to  present  in  the  most 
vivid  language  which  Jesus  could  employ  the 
dread  sinfulness  of  a  useless  life,  and  the  horror 
with  which  it  is  regarded  by  the  Heavenly  Father. 
What  was  the  character  of  this  rich  man  ?  Did  he 
fail  to  read  the  Holy  Scriptures?     Did  he  fail  to 


242  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

attend  upon  public  service  ?  Did  he  ever  wrong  any 
man  of  his  money,  or  rob  any  woman  of  her  virtue  ? 
Was  he  a  thief,  a  Har,  a  murderer?  What  had  he 
done  ;  what  against  God,  what  against  man  ?  So 
far  as  the  record  goes,  absolutely  nothing.  His 
circumstances  put  him  beyond  the  temptations 
which  lead  to  the  commission  of  many  sins.  He 
was  rich  ;  he  had  abundance ;  he  did  not  have  to 
steal  his  bread  in  order  to  preserve  his  life.  He 
not  only  did  no  harm,  but  he  did  not  stand  in  the 
way  of  other  people's  doing  good.  He  did  not 
prevent  his  servants  from  shaking  out  broken 
dainties  and  tidbits  from  the  table-cloths  which 
served  at  his  own  meals.  When  he  passed  out  to 
his  business  or  his  pleasure  and  saw  a  loathsome 
pauper  at  his  door,  he  did  not  kick  him  for  being 
there,  he  did  not  even  order  his  servants  to  remove 
him.  But  day  by  day  this  wretched  beggar  lay 
and  had  some  food,  enough  indeed  to  sustain  his 
life,  for  a  long  time,  from  the  table  of  this  rich  man. 
What  had  he  done  ?  Nothing,  absolutely  nothing, 
but  this :  he  had  had  opportunity  to  be  good  to 
another,  and  had  simply  failed  to  do  it.  Yet 
when  he  died,  he  was  in  torments,  such  torments 
that  led  him  to  cry  for  a  drop  of  water  to  cool  his 
tongue.  If  human  language  can  fix  upon  the 
memory  by  sentences  more  picturesque  than 
these  the  sinfulness  of  not  doing  good,  who  will 
devise  the  song,  or  the  sermon,  or  the  story,  more 
impressive  than  this  parable  of  Jesus? 


Tkc  Gospd  of  Common  Sense.  243 

THE  LAST  JUDGMENT. 
If  any  one  should  think  for  a  moment  that  this 
is  a  solitary  case,  let   him  read  the  twenty-fifth 
chapter  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Matthew,  and 
follow  up  this  and  the  parable  of  the  talents  with 
the   account    which   Jesus   gives   of  the  general 
judgment  ;  when,  before  the  throne  of  the  glory 
of  the  Great  Judge,  shall  be  gathered  all  nations, 
and  the  King  shall  invite  some  into  the  Kingdom 
prepared  for  them,  on  the  ground  that  their  faith 
had  been  operative,  and  had  led  them  to  feed  the 
hungry  and  give  drink  to  the  thirsty,  and  hos- 
pitality to  the  stranger,  and  clothes  to  the  naked, 
and  visits  to  the  sick,  and  attention  to  the  pris- 
oner.     Then,   when    these   have  been   gathered 
into  the  Kingdom,  what  shall  become  of  all  the 
others  ?     The  Judge  is  represented  as  saying  to 
them,  "  Depart  from  Me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlast- 
ing fire   prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels." 
He  curses  them  ;  He  pronounces  their  doom.    No 
fire   was  ever   prepared    for   human    beings,  but 
there  has  been  a  fire  prepared  for  the  devil  and 
his  emissaries,  and  men  may  prepare  themselves 
for  the  torture  which  that  fire  can  inflict. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  Him  who  knows 
the  secrets  of  all  hearts,  how  does  one  prepare 
one's  self  for  such  a  doom  as  that  ?  By  Sabbath- 
breaking,  lying,  theft,  robbery,  adultery,  murder } 
Most  surely  these  sins  will  make  a  man  a  fit  com- 
panion for  the  devil  and  his  staff.     The  Judge, 


244  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

however,  says  nothing  of  these  so  obvious  things, 
but  He  does  point  to  what  as  inevitably  brings  a 
man  into  fitness  for  companionship  with  the  devil, 
namely,  a  life  barren  of  all  good.  From  this  fear- 
ful rehearsal  of  the  judgment  scene  by  the  Lord 
Jesus,  the  more  fearful  because  it  is  uttered  in 
such  a  quiet  tone,  we  learn  that  one  does  not 
have  to  commit  every  capital  offence  in  the  law. 
Unfruitfulness,  uselessness,  the  absence  of  benefi- 
cence— this  will  certainly  bring  a  man  to  this 
dreadful  doom.  All  one  has  to  do  is  to  live  in  a 
world  where  there  is  hunger  and  thirst  and  lone- 
liness and  nakedness  and  sickness  and  imprison- 
ment, and  not  minister  food  and  drink  and  com- 
panionship and  clothing  and  visitation,  to  the 
least  of  one  of  Christ's  brethren,  that  is,  to  the 
least  of  human  beings,  for  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son 
of  Man,  is  the  brother  of  all  men. 

Those  whom  He  says  He  will  be  compelled  to 
condemn  at  the  last  judgment,  will  not  simply 
be  those  who  mistreated  Him  ;  not  some  who  had 
taken  away  the  food  He  may  have  had  in  his 
hand,  or  dashed  the  cup  of  water  from  His  lips 
when  He  was  fevered,  or  stripped  His  raiment  from 
Him,  or  cast  Him  into  prison  ;  not  simply  those 
who  spat  upon  His  face,  who  lashed  Him  on  the 
bare  back,  who  pressed  the  thorn-crown  into  His 
holy  brow,  who  nailed  Him  to  the  accursed 
cross  ;  but  with  them  shall  go  all  those  who, 
knowing  to  do  good,  do  it  not. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense,  245 

Who  shall  be  able  to  read  these  teachings  of 
our  Lord,  and  study  His  example,  and  remember 
that  His  human  career  is  epitomized  in  the  state- 
ment "  He  went  about  doing  good"  ;  who  shall 
study  the  career  of  His  Apostles,  and  see  what 
prodigiously  fortifying  power  there  was  in  their 
faith,  which  not  only  saved  them,  but  sent  them 
out  to  save  others  ;  and  shall  not  have  impressed 
upon  himself  the  great  truth,  that  every  hour  of 
human  life  which  is  not  spent  in  useful  employ- 
ment is  an  hour  of  sin  ?  If  James  had  written  no 
other  sentence,  this  last  verse  of  his  fourth  chap- 
ter is  enough  to  place  him  in  the  foremost  ranks 
of  all  ethical  teachers  and  win  him  an  immortality 
of  fame. 

COMMON   SENSE   APPLIES   THE   PRINCIPLE. 

In  an  age  of  such  multifarious  modes  of  inter- 
communication as  our  own  time,  it  is  easy  to  per- 
ceive how  we  all  can  learn  modes  of  doing  good 
much  more  rapidly  than  we  can  increase  our 
ability  to  do  good.  The  precept  of  jAMES  must 
be  read,  therefore,  in  the  light  of  common  sense. 
The  writer  of  these  pages,  as  well  perhaps  as  the 
reader,  knows  a  thousand  ways  in  which  he  can 
do  good,  where  he  has  the  ability  to  employ  only 
five  of  them.  An  important  question  then  arises 
as  to  the  extent  of  our  responsibility.  That  is 
plainly  limited  by  our  ability.  No  man  can  be 
held  to  answer  for  not  doing  what  he  cannot  do. 
Then,  when  it  is  settled  that  all  our  ability  to  do 


246  llic  Gospel  of  Couimon  Souse. 

good  must  be  employed,  the  selection  has  to  be 
made  from  the  many  and  multiform  methods  of 
usefulness  which  present  themselves  to  our  at- 
tention. 

THE   NEAREST   FIRST. 

Duty  is  created  by  obligation.  Obligation  is 
the  result  of  many  factors.  Nearness  is  one  of 
these.  My  first  obligation  is  to  myself;  I  know 
how  to  do  good  to  myself.  Here  is  a  personality 
to  deal  with  from  whom  I  am  never  absent.  No 
mother,  nor  wife,  nor  child,  can  be  as  near  me  as 
myself.  That  very  constancy  of  contiguity  creates 
an  obligation.  The  person  who  is  to  be  the  first 
object  of  my  religious  care  is  myself.  There  can 
be  no  obligation  which  precedes  that  which  binds 
me  to  myself.  Doing  good  to  any  human  being 
is  the  treatment  of  him  in  such  a  manner  as  will 
tend  to  make  him  good.  Being  good  means 
serving  God.  Now,  each  man  must  turn  upon 
himself,  and  do  all  he  can  by  preserving  the 
health  and  nursing  the  powers  of  his  body,  cul- 
tivating the  faculties  of  his  intellect,  purifying  his 
emotions,  and  stimulating  his  spirit.  If  he  knows 
any  course  of  hygiene,  or  education,  or  devout 
exercise  needed  to  accomplish  these  things,  and 
he  neglects  it,  he  is  so  far  forth  a  sinner.  His 
neighbor  does  not  have  precedence  of  himself. 
THE   IMPLICATION   OF   ALTRUISM. 

The  great  law  of  Jesus,  which  in  this  day  is 
called  "altruism,"  namely,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  247 

neijjhbor  as  thyself,"  impliedly  makes  the  love  of 
one's  self  precede  the  love  of  one's  neighbor,  and 
to  be  at  once  the  foundation  thereof  and  the 
model  thereof.  A  man  who  neglects  himself  to 
improve  the  spiritual  condition  of  his  neighbor, 
makes  a  grave  mistake.  A  man  who  neglects 
his  own  family  out  of  philanthropy  to  his  neigh- 
bors, is  doing  wrong.  A  man  who  neglects  his 
church  for  some  extra  missionary  work  and  plans 
of  his  own,  is  doing  wrong.  He  is  reversing  the 
common-sense  principle  of  Christian  morals. 
The  best  thing  a  man  can  do  for  the  world  is  to 
cultivate  himself  in  such  manner  that  if  all  the 
world  followed  his  example  the  world  would  be 
vastly  better. 

In  the  very  doing  of  this  a  man  acquires 
greater  power  to  help  his  fellow-men  to  be  better. 
In  caring  for  his  own  household  he  is  making  a 
model  after  which  if  all  the  families  of  the  earth 
lived  the  whole  world  would  be  better  ;  and  he  is 
training  his  family  to  be  more  useful  to  the  com- 
munity to  which  they  belong.  His  doing  good 
to  that  which  is  farthest  off  does  not  excuse  a 
man  for  neglecting  that  which  is  nearest  him. 
It  was  no  excuse  for  John  Howard  for  neglecting 
his  boy  at  home  and  letting  him  grow  up  to  be 
a  moral  pest,  that  the  father  was  looking  after 
the  prisoners  incarcerated  in  distant  jails  of  the 
kingdom.  The  rule  is,  Do  NOW  that  zvhich  is 
nearest  :    discharge   plain    duties    first,   consider 


24<5  TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

probable  duties  afterward.  The  doing  of  the 
former  will  give  more  wisdom  and  strength  for 
the  doing  of  the  latter. 

KNOWLEDGE    AGGRAVATES   SIN. 

There  is  a  collateral  truth  to  that  which  is 
clearly  expressed  in  the  words  of  our  author,  and 
that  truth  is,  Knozvledgc  aggravates  sinfulness. 
We  cannot  dissolve  our  responsibility  by  shutting 
our  eyes  to  our  opportunities  ;  on  the  contrary,  if 
we  have  any  unemployed  powers,  and  there  are 
not  opportunities  which  press  themselves  upon 
our  attention,  we  are  bound  to  seek  them.  Let  it 
never  be  forgotten  what  the  lord  said  to  his 
servant  who  had  not  improved  the  one  talent : 
"  You  ought  to  have  put  out  my  money."  There 
is  such  a  thing  as  economy  of  a  whole  life,  and 
that  word  ''  economy  "  is  a  very  comprehensive 
one.  It  means  a  study  of  the  outlay  of  every- 
thing at  our  command.  We  are  bound  to  study 
that  there  be  no  waste  of  physical,  intellectual,  or 
spiritual  powers.  We  are  to  plan  that  each  one 
shall  be  employed  where  and  when  and  how  it  can 
do  the  most  good. 

No  one  fails  to  see  the  truth  of  this  in  finance. 
A  man  studies  to  make  an  outlay  of  his  money  for 
two  purposes,  of  increasing  it  and  enjoying  it.  So 
also  should  a  man  study  to  make  an  outlay  of 
everything  else  which  may  be  accounted  as  among 
his  personal  assets.  And  in  the  light  of  that 
truth   follows   another,    namely,   that   the   sin    is 


Tlic  Gospel  of  Colli,  in  on  Sense.  249 

always  greater  when  the  opportunity  is  presented 

to  us,  and  shown  to  He  within  the  circle  of  our 

ability. 

THE   MONEY   ILLUSTRATION. 

There  is  no  illustration  so  comprehensible  to 
every  class  of  intellect  as  an  illustration  taken 
from  money.  To  apply  our  principle,  let  us  sup- 
pose a  person  with  a  very  large  income.  Every 
cent  of  any  income,  great  or  small,  is  to  be  spent 
for  God,  because  it  is  God's.  The  single  question 
in  spending  any  dime  or  shilling  is,  Will  this  have 
a  tendency  to  make  the  relationship  between  God 
and  man  a  happier  and  a  more  improving  one  ? 
A  right-minded  man  can  form  the  habit  of  bring- 
ing that  principle  to  bear  in  the  decision  of  every 
penny  he  spends  for  an  apple  and  every  dime  he 
spends  for  a  ride,  and  the  principle  may  obtain 
such  rule  over  his  life  that  instinctively  the 
question  is  settled,  whether  he  ought  to  ride  or 
walk,  to  eat  or  abstain.  When  a  man's  income  is 
very  large  this  becomes  a  serious  matter,  and 
often  makes  life  burdensome.  He  cannot  content 
his  conscience,  unless  it  be  an  evil  conscience, 
with  assigning  to  the  promotion  of  influential 
efforts  to  do  good,  so  small  a  proportion  of  his 
income  as  he  did  when  that  income  was  smaller. 

For  instance,  a  Christian  woman  was  a  milliner 
in  her  early  married  life,  and  had  no  income  but 
that  which  could  be  allowed  her  by  her  Chris- 
tian husband,  who  was  a  mechanic  working   on 


250  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

wages  ;  the  two  at  the  end  of  the  year  had  very- 
little  left  after  their  modest  and  proper  expenses 
were  met,  but  nevertheless,  they  contrived  to 
give  one-tenth  of  their  income  to  works  of  char- 
ity beyond  their  own  family.  That  woman,  in 
after  life,  was  left  a  widow,  with  an  income  of  five 
thousand  dollars  a  month.  If  she  contented  her- 
self with  giving  only  five  hundred  dollars  a 
month  to  charities,  she  might  be  described  sim- 
ply as  a  poor  kind  of  Christian.  Her  conscience 
ought  to  have  told  her  that  she  was  living  daily 
in  sin. 

But  even  if  she  felt  the  full  force  of  that,  and 
then  endeavored  to  live  simply  and  quietly  and 
expend  her  entire  income  over  and  above  her 
proper  needs  on  worthy  works  outside  her  family, 
she  would  soon  come  to  the  end  of  her  respon- 
sibility. There  would  be  presented  to  her  so 
many  causes  that  were  really  worthy,  that  four 
thousand  dollars  a  month — four-fifths  of  her  in- 
come set  aside  for  charity — would  not  meet  the 
demands  of  all.  She  must  then  determine  for 
"hcvseM  zvhich  of  those  calls  are  most  binding  on 
her.  It  is  part  of  her  education  to  determine 
such  questions,  and  the  settlement  must  be  made 
not  on  any  grounds  of  selfishness  or  vanity  or 
other  forms  of  worldliness,  but  on  the  simple 
ground  of  doing  good. 

It  is  not  every  gift  of  money  that  does  good. 
The  mode,  the  direction,  and  the  spirit  of  the  gift 


Tkc  Gospel  of  Coinifiju  Sense.  251 

have  much  to  do  with  the  result.  The  very 
moment  it  becomes  known  that  a  rich  man  has 
made  a  large  gift  of  money  there  begins  the  in- 
pouring  of  applications  from  all  quarters  of  the 
world.  It  is  so  even  where  a  man  is  suspected 
of  being  where  he  can  influence  the  rich.  All 
pastors  of  men  who  are  known  to  be  wealthy  and 
liberal  are  deluged  with  such  applications. 

A  friend  of  mine,  who  at  the  time  could  have 
drawn  his  check  for  twenty  millions  of  dollars, 
once  offered  me  five  millions  of  dollars  to  meet 
the  appeals  made  upon  me  for  money,  if  I  would 
give  him  a  guarantee  that  that,  divided  up  amongst 
those  whom  I  knew  to  be  needy,  and  those  who 
knew  me,  would  end  all  applications.  He  was  a 
shrewd  man  ;  he  knew  that  I  knew  that  if  I  had 
all  the  money  in  all  the  banks  and  vaults  in 
America,  it  would  not  achieve  that  result  ;  that 
when  it  came  to  be  known  that  I  had  money  to  dis- 
tribute, it  would  set  the  world  howling  after  me. 
There  must  be  at  least  forty  millions  of  people  in 
America  who  want  a  little  more  money  for  some- 
thing else.  Now,  in  such  a  case  as  this,  each  per- 
son must  regulate  his  outlay  wisely,  and  never 
give  anything,  and  never  do  anything,  simply  to 
get  rid  of  the  solicitors. 

FOUR   WAYS   OPEN   TO   ALL. 

Are  you  willing  and  ready  to  do  good  as  you 
have  opportunity  .^  Have  you  been  interested  in 
what  has  been  written  above  in  regard  to  persons 


252  The  Gospel  of  C 0)11)110)1  Se)ise. 

of  large  means?  And  do  you  say,  "  I  have  very 
little  money  to  give  ;  and  I  have  very  little  bodily 
strength  ;  and  I  have  very  little  intellectual  force  ; 
and  I  have  a  very  small  circle  of  influence  "  ?  If 
these  things  be  so,  nevertheless,  there  must  be 
some  way  in  which  you  can  do  good,  and  you 
must  know  that  way,  and  if  you  do  not  walk 
therein,  remember  that  you  are  therefore  a  sinner. 
Money  is  not  ev/^erything.  It  has  been  selected 
merely  as  an  example.  Everything  whereby  life 
can  be  modified  comes  under  the  rule.  The  poor- 
est and  feeblest  reader  of  this  page  can  do  four 
things  which  will  be  of  very  great  use  to  the 
whole  world. 

(i)  StiDid  out  of  the  xvay  of  ivorkers.  If  you 
cannot  do  much  good,  or  fancy  you  can  do 
none,  at  least  do  not  stand  in  the  way  of  those 
who  can.  In  your  own  family,  study  how  to 
cease  to  be  an  obstruction  to  those  who  have 
some  ability  to  bring  people  into  a  better  state. 
Do  so  in  your  church.  Do  so  in  any  society  to 
which  you  may  belong.  Everywhere  there  are 
people,  professing  to  be  Christians,  who  stand  in 
the  way  of  the  world's  progress.  Every  pastor 
is  worried  and  overworked  in  striving  to  climb 
over  or  pull  aside  the  dead  logs,  the  almost 
worthless  obstructionists  in  the  church  ;  people 
who  are  constantly  giving  him  trouble  by  their 
neglect  of  duties,  by  their  bad  tongues,  or  by  the 
deadening  influence  of  their  lethargic  lives.     If 


The  Gospel  of  Comuion  Sense.  253 

you  cannot  help  to  extinguish  a  conflagration, 
for  goodness'  sake  move  out  of  the  way  of  the 
engines  that  are  flying  to  the  rescue. 

(2)  Then  lend  the  zv/iule  pressure  of  your  steady 
influence  to  the  side  of  right.  It  may  be  a  very  little 
pressure.  It  may  be  only  an  ounce,  but  sixteen 
such  pressures  make  a  pound,  and  a  couple  of 
thousands  of  such  pounds  make  a  ton.  You  are 
not  responsible  for  any  portion  of  the  pound  be- 
yond your  sixteenth  ;  but  for  that  sixteenth  you 
are  responsible.  The  difference  between  an  in- 
fluential effort  and  the  steady  pressure  of  in- 
fluence is  very  readily  perceived.  There  are 
useful  men  who  almost  never  make  any  effort 
the  effect  of  which  is  perceived.  They  write  no 
book,  they  deliver  no  discourse,  they  contribute 
no  fund  that  the  world,  or  any  portion  thereof, 
perceives  and  feels  instantaneously  ;  but  they 
always  stand  in  with  the  good  ;  they  always 
stand  up  for  the  right  ;  they  are  always  counted 
for  the  truth.  It  was  a  woman,  Hannah  More, 
who  invented  the  phrase,  "  The  logic  of  the  life." 
It  embodies  a  splendid  truth.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  lives  no  incident  in  one  of  which  can  be 
used  to  illustrate  any  particular  truth,  or  assist  in 
any  particular  cause,  the  sum  total  of  each  one 
of  which  is  an  unanswerable  argument  for  the 
right.  If  no  special  passage  in  your  life  be  so 
conspicuous  as  to  arrest  any  man's  attention,  let 
your  character,  as  a  whole,  make  an  impres- 
sion   for    the    truth.      Let    its   weight,    however 


254  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

little,  press  every  one  it  touches  away  from  the 
wrong  and  into  the  right. 

(3)  Become  a  propagandist.  You  have  some 
convictions,  and  there  is  at  least  one  person  with 
whom  you  talk  sometimes.  Endeavor  to  lay  the 
weight  of  your  convictions  of  any  truth  on  the 
soul  of  your  neighbor.  Never  mention  your 
doubts,  unless  it  be  to  those  who  can  dissipate 
them,  but  always  calmly  and  resolutely  stand  by 
your  convictions.     It  will  tell  in  the  long  run. 

(4)  Be  good.  There  is  no  way  of  doing  good 
so  thoroughly  efficacious  as  being  good.  One 
good  man  given  to  a  town  is  better  than  the  gift 
of  a  park,  or,  it  may  be,  of  a  library.  One  good 
man  is  worth  more  to  a  town  than  a  hundred  of 
the  most  learned  men  who  are  not  good.  One 
good  man  does  not  illuminate  every  spot  along 
the  shore,  but  he  stands  as  a  lighthouse  from 
whose  lamp,  a  foot  or  two  in  diameter,  a  light 
streams  miles  far  over  the  dark  seas  of  night, 
and  enables  the  mariner  to  guide  his  bark  away 
from  the  wrecking  rocks. 

In  all  our  efforts  to  be  useful  let  us  remember 
that  it  is  the  motive  which  sanctifies  the  good 
deed  ;  that  works  without  faith  are  dead,  even  as 
faith  without  works  is  dead.  In  the  Gospel 
sense,  doing  good  means  doing  that  for  others 
which  will  enable  them  to  do  more  to  bring  their 
human  brothers  into  happier  relations  with  the 
Heavenly  Father,  and  so  please  the  Heavenly 
Father. 


XI. 

Impending  Judgment. 

CHAPTER  v.,    1-6. 
A  RECALL. 

IN  coming  to  study  the  last  chapter  in  this 
epistle,  we  must  remind  ourselves  of  the  pri- 
mary design  of  the  writer,  namely,  to  reach 
those  Jews  who  had  become  Christians  with  words 
of  rebuke  for  the  sins  of  which  they  had  become 
guilty,  and  to  recall  them  to  the  consolations  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God.  It  does  not  L>eem 
to  be  an  unreasonable  or  unnatural  conjecture 
that  James  would  suppose  that  this  letter,  pass- 
ing in  the  autograph  or  in  copies  among  his 
scattered  parishioners,  would  also  find  its  way 
into  the  hands  of  Jews  who  were  outside  the 
Christian  parish.  This  would  in  a  measure  ac- 
count for  the  tone  of  the  opening  of  the  fifth 
chapter.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  rely  upon 
this  alone  in  accounting  for  the  startling  phrase- 
ology. It  is  quite  possible  that  there  were  rich 
people  as  well  as  poor  among  Hebrew-Christians. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  some  of  them  had  accumu- 
lated property  by  the  industrial  exercise  of  their 
skill  in  trade.  His  appeal  would  be  applicable  to 
them.     There  is  also  the  rhetorical  ground  :  by 


256  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

pointing  out  the  follies  and  sins  of  the  rich,  a 
preacher  or  writer  gives  comfort  to  those  who  are 
poor,  and  who  desire  to  maintain  their  integrity 
by  keeping  their  virtue  unbroken. 

For  so  thoughtful  a  writer  as  James  all  these 
three  considerations  might  have  had  weight 
when  he  wrote  the  following  searching  words  : 

^^Come  noiv.ye  rich,  ye  shouting  ones  ;  weep  for 
the  miseries  coming  upon  you.  Your  wealth  hath 
rotted  and  your  garments  have  become  moth-eaten. 
Your  gold  and  silver  are  rusted,  and  their  rust 
shall  be  for  witness  unto  you,  and  sJiall  eat  your 
flesh  as  fire.  You  have  accumulated  in  the  last 
days.  See,  the  hire  of  the  laborers  who  have  mowed 
your  field,  which  is  kept  back  by  you,  crieth  out; 
and  the  cries  of  those  ivho  have  reaped  have  entered 
into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  hosts.  You  have  lived 
luxuriously  upon  the  earth,  and  have  been  sportive 
and  fattened  your  hearts  in  a  day  of  slaughter. 
You  have  condemned,  you  have  murdered  the  Just 
One;  He  doth  not  resist you.'^ 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  ethically,  and  be 
doing  great  injustice  to  our  author,  if  any  one 
supposed  that  he  indulged  in  anything  like  class- 
hate,  or  had  any  intent  to  nourish  that  low  and 
wicked  sentiment.  There  is  no  virtue  nor  vice  in 
riches,  and  equally,  no  virtue  nor  vice  in  poverty. 
A  rich  man  may  be  a  good  man  and  so  may  a 
poor  man.  The  latter  may  be  a  bad  man  and  so 
may  a  rich  man.     The  rags  of  Lazarus  did  not 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  257 

bear  him  heavenward,  neither  did  the  purple  and 
fine  hnen  of  Dives  draw  him  hellward.  A  man's 
material  property  is  altogether  an  outward  con- 
dition. His  moral  character  is  altogether  an  in- 
ward estate,  and  yet,  as  we  can  perceive,  the 
character  modifies  the  condition,  and  the  condi- 
tion may  modify  the  character,  for  our  growth  in 
godliness.  As  great  helps  may  be  found  in  pov- 
erty as  in  riches.  But  both  may  become  agencies 
for  our  spiritual  deterioration.  It  is  wise  in  any 
man  to  be  very  careful  lest  his  outward  condition 
damage  his  inward  character.  It  is  not  having 
riches,  however  great,  that  is  hurtful.  All  the 
world  ought  to  know  that  wealth  does  not  make 
superiority.  poverty  inferiority  ;  just  as  wealth 
cannot  procure  unalloyed  bliss  nor  poverty  make 
unmitigated  evil. 

The  three  most  important  things  about  a  man's 
wealth  are  these:  first,  How  it  was  obtained; 
secondly.  How  it  is  enjoyed  ;  thirdly.  How  it  is 
used.  Lucre  is  not  filthy  itself ;  but  if  obtained  by 
unjust  means,  it  becomes  filthy  lucre  ;  or  if  it  be 
enjoyed  selfishly,  lavishly,  and  carnally,  it  becomes 
filthy  lucre ;  or  if  employed  to  carry  out  crafty 
and  wicked  designs  by  corrupting  men  to  become 
instruments  for  evil  in  the  hands  of  its  owner,  it 
is  filthy  lucre. 

It  is  to  men  who  have  so  obtained  and  employed 
wealth  that  James  calls  in  tones  of  tremendous 
warning.    In  the  midst  of  the  shouts  of  their 


258  The  Gospel  of  Conunon  Sense. 

revelry  he  calls  them  to  weep,  in  words  spoken  in 
tones  of  the  old  prophets.  So  Isaiah  (ch.  13) 
called  to  their  ancestors,  "  Hear  ye,  for  the  day 
of  the  Lord  is  at  hand  ;  it  shall  come  as  a  de- 
struction from  the  Almighty,  therefore  shall  all 
hands  be  faint  and  every  man's  heart  shall  melt. 
They  shall  be  amazed,  every  man  at  his  neighbor; 
their  faces  shall  be  as  flames."  It  is  a  call  to 
arouse  them  from  their  self-contentment  and  self- 
sufficiency  ;  dispositions  frequently  caused  by 
great  riches.  He  prophesies  that  miseries  are 
coming  upon  them.  He  seems  to  hear  the  foot- 
fall of  the  approaching  days  of  misery — misery 
that  could  not  be  warded  off  by  all  the  wealth 
which  they  had  gathered  around  them.  Scarcely 
a  decade  passed  before  this  prophecy  was  fulfilled. 
The  turbulent  disposition  of  the  Jews,  their  inces- 
sant seditions  and  frequent  outbreaks,  at  last 
brought  upon  them  the  destruction  of  their  city, 
when,  as  Josephus  informs  us,  the  Zealots  spared 
none  but  those  who  were  poor  and  low  in  for- 
tune, and  were  so  insatiably  rapacious  that  they 
searched  all  the  houses  of  the  rich,  killing  the 
men  and  abusing  the  women.  And  the  same 
writer  informs  us  that  these  terrors  befell  not 
only  those  who  were  in  Judea,  but  also  those  who 
were  "  in  dispersion."  When  any  day  of  judg- 
ment falls  upon  a  people  such  as  then  fell  upon 
the  Jews,  the  whole  nation  is  involved.  What 
then  can  riches  do  'i 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  259 

In  the  picturesque  phrases  which  follow,  J  AMES 
alludes  to  the  various  kinds  of  wealth  in  his  day. 
We  must  remember  that  this  epistle  was  written 
long  before  corporate  combinations,  such  as  now 
prevail,  had  entered  into  the  contrivances  of  men 
either  for  the  accumulation  or  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  wealth,  such  as  shares  of  stock  in 
mining  companies  and  railway  companies,  and 
what  are  called  "  trusts,"  monopolies,  and  other 
modes  of  investment.  Even  our  modern  invest- 
ment in  works  of  fine  art  was  a  thing  unknown. 
If  a  man  acquired  wealth  beyond  his  own  house 
and  garden,  what  was  he  to  do  with  it  }  There 
were  three  classes  of  things  in  which  he  ordinarily 
invested  it,  namely,  grain,  clothes,  and  gold  or 
silver  coin. 

The  first  might  be  used  in  several  ways.  It 
might  be  stored  for  a  rise  in  breadstuffs,  some- 
thing like  our  modern  "corners  in  grain";  or  it 
might  be  transported  and  sold  ;  or  it  might  be 
kept  stored  in  vaults  for  the  owner's  use  if  there 
should  come  at  any  time  a  famine  or  a  war. 
With  such  wealth  one  might  say,  like  the  man  in 
the  parable  (Luke  12),  who  had  stored  all  his 
goods  in  the  shape  of  grain  :  "Soul,  thou  hast 
much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years  ;  take  thine 
ease  ;  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry."  When  the  calami- 
ties came,  the  grain,  which  had  been  kept  up  at  a 
high  price,  thus  increasing  the  suffering  of  the 
poor,  had  become  rotten  in  the  bins. 


26o  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Another  form  of  accumulation  was  in  the 
shape  of  costly  raiment,  and  even  of  plainer  gar- 
ments in  greater  quantities.  In  our  day  this 
kind  of  accumulation  is  almost  unknown,  because 
the  fashions  are  so  constantly  varying.  But  in 
olden  times  and  even  in  our  own  day,  the  fashions 
do  not  change  in  the  East.  As  the  prizes  taken 
in  ancient  wars,  we  frequently  hear  of  fine  gar- 
ments as  amongst  the  treasures.  It  is  said  that 
when  Alexander  the  Great  took  Persepolis  the 
riches  of  all  Asia  were  gathered  there  ;  not  only 
quantities  of  silver  and  gold,  but  also  abundance 
of  raiment.  When  the  Roman  Lucullus  was  re- 
quested to  lend  a  hundred  garments  to  the  thea- 
tre, he  replied  that  he  had  five  thousand  in  his 
house,  and  they  were  welcome  to  take  as  many 
as  they  would.  In  regard  to  that  species  of 
wealth,  James  said,  "Your  garments  have  be- 
come moth-eaten  ;  "  and  so  he  said  of  coin, 
"Your  gold  and  silver  are  rusted."  This  must, 
of  course,  refer  to  the  soil  which  will  gather  even 
upon  the  precious  metals  when  laid  aside,  al- 
though they  could  not  rust  in  our  modern  sense 
of  becoming  oxidized.  But  long  kept  out  of  cir- 
culation, and  thus  increasing  the  embarrassment 
of  society,  they  had  become  spotted  in  the  secret 
and  safe  places  where  they  had  been  concealed. 

The  words  of  James  must  have  brought  back 
to  his  Christian  readers  the  exhortation  of  his  great 
brother;     "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  261 

upon  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt, 
and  where  thieves  break  through  and  steal  ;  but 
lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,  where 
neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where 
thieves  do  not  break  through  nor  steal "  (Matt.  6) 
He  announced  to  them  that  the  rust  of  their 
money  should  rise  up  against  them  and  condemn 
them,  and  come  down  upon  them  and  punish 
them  ;  that  is,  should  eat  into  them,  with  an 
agony  that  should  be  like  the  burning  of  one's 
flesh ;  for  their  avarice,  which  had  led  them  to 
such  great  injustice,  which  had  warmed  their 
hearts  and  burned  out  their  neighbors,  should  be 
in  them  like  the  flaming  fire.  Here,  again,  we 
have  the  old  prophetic  thunder,  as  when  the 
Psalmist  said  :  "  Thou  shalt  make  them  as  a  fiery 
oven  in  the  time  of  Thy  wrath,  and  the  fire  shall 
eat  them  up"  (Ps.  21  : 9).  As  when  Isaiah  said, 
"  The  Light  of  Israel  shall  be  for  a  fire  and  the 
Holy  One  for  a  flame.  It  shall  burn  and  eat  up;  it 
shall  eat  up  from  the  soul  to  the  flesh  "  (Isa.  10 :  16). 
As  when  Jeremiah  said,  "  Behold,  I  will  make 
My  word  in  thy  mouth,  fire,  and  the  people  wood, 
and  it  shall  eat  them  up  "  (Jer.  5  :  14)  As  when 
Ezekiel  said,  "  They  shall  go  out  from  one  fire  and 
another  fire  shall  devour  them"  (Ezek.  15:  7). 
"I  will  bring  forth  a  fire  from  the  midst  of  thee, 
and  the  fire  shall  eat  thee  up  "  (Ezek.  28  :  18). 

James  was  writing  to  people  who  were  much 
more  familiar  with  this  phraseology  than  we  are 


262  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

in  our  day.  To  the  Jews  who  lived  when  James 
wrote,  this  soon  came  to  be  literally  true  ;  for 
their  substance  and  their  flesh  were  destroyed 
when  the  city  and  the  temple  were  burned. 
Josephus  tells  us  that  the  flames  consumed  their 
dead  bodies  and  their  substance  and  their  ward- 
robes. Whatever  was  spared  from  the  flames  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Romans  ;  and  so,  it  came 
to  pass  that  the  treasures  which  had  been 
heaped  up  to  prnduce  for  them  a  long  season  of 
quiet  and  comfort  were  all  swept  away  ;  for  they 
had  planted  their  seed  in  a  garden  that  lay  over 
the  heart  of  a  volcano  which  was  soon  to  burst. 
Their  doom  was  aggravated  by  the  injustice 
which  they  had  used  in  the  accumulation  of  their 
hoarded  property.  They  had  violated  the  law  of 
justice  and,  as  well,  the  law  of  benevolence,  and 
had  broken  the  precept  of  Moses  in  which  it  was 
recorded,  "The  wages  of  him  that  is  hired  shall 
not  abide  with  thee  all  night  until  the  morning  " 
(Lev.  19  :  13).  As  also,  "  Thou  shalt  not  oppress 
a  hired  servant  that  is  poor  and  needy  at  his  day, 
thou  shalt  give  him  his  hire  ;  neither  shall  the  sun 
go  down  upon  it,  lest  he  cry  against  thee  to  the 
Lord,  and  it  be  a  sin  unto  thee"  (Lev,  24:  14,  15). 
This  hire,  which  was  still  in  their  possession,  the 
interest  of  which  they  had  enjoyed,  now  cried  out 
against  them  from  the  secret  places  where  they 
had  stored  grain,  or  garments,  or  gold,  as  the 
blood  of  Abel  cried  unto  God  from  the  ground 
against  his  brother  Cain  (Gen.  4:  10). 


The  Gospel  of  Covdhou  Sense.  26 


Perhaps  there  is  no  portion  of  this  denunciation 
which  could  be  brought  home  to  the  modern  Chris- 
tian community  more  decisively  than  this.  The 
crying  sin  against  the  rich  in  every  large  city  is  the 
sin  of  keeping  back  the  hire  which  belongs  to  the 
laborers  ;  and  this  is  probably  committed  oftener 
by  Christian  women  than  by  Christian  men. 
Amongst  us  the  sin  consists  in  postponing,  as  a 
small  matter,  a  small  debt  to  the  poor  man  :  a 
messenger,  a  porter,  a  laundress,  or  some  menial. 
Amongst  our  ladies,  the  little  bill  of  the  dress- 
maker or  the  milliner  is  little  only  to  the  debtor, 
not  to  the  creditor.  The  poor  working  woman 
has  an  old  mother,  or  a  helpless  brother,  or  a 
young  child  to  support.  Her  rent  is  to  be  paid 
exactly  at  the  hour.  No  grace  of  time  is  granted 
to  her,  as  it  is  to  a  man  whose  rent  is  twenty 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  She  must  pay  her  rent, 
or  have  her  baby's  cradle  and  her  other  little  fur- 
niture put  out  on  the  sidewalk.  On  Saturday 
night  she  must  pay  for  the  meat  and  the  flour 
v/hich  have  been  bought  during  the  week,  or  she 
and  her  loved  ones  must  fast  through  the  Sunday, 
and  fast  on  until  her  rich  sister,  who  wears  the 
work  produced  by  weary  fingers  and  sometimes 
wet  with  bitter  tears,  shall  think  of  her  little  bill, 
and  pay  it.  Oh,  my  sisters,  this  is  a  crying  sin  of 
this  day.  In  this  great  city  in  which  I  am  writ- 
ing, last  Sunday,  hundreds  of  ladies  swept  mag- 
nificently  dressed   into   the   House  of  God,  and 


264  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

quietly  sat  in  their  pews  under  the  preaching,  and 
went  out  to  sumptuous  dinners,  and  rested  deli- 
cately for  their  afternoon's  siesta  on  soft  couches, 
while  their  poor  laboring  sisters  were  compelled 
to  stay  from  church  because  some  little  bill  was 
not  paid  ;  and  that  little  bill  was  not  paid  on 
Saturday  because,  when  the  poor  work-woman 
called,  the  debtor  was  chatting  pleasantly  with 
some  flattering  friend,  and  sent  word  to  the  poor 
woman  to  come  again  ;  or  else,  had  gone  riding 
into  the  park,  and  forgot  to  leave  the  amount 
which  she  had  promised  should  be  paid  on  Satur- 
day. If  any  Christian  man  or  woman  shall  read 
this  passage  on  Sunday  when  he  owes  fifty  cents, 
or  a  dollar,  or  two,  or  three,  or  five  dollars,  any- 
thing under  ten  dollars,  to  any  man  or  woman 
known  to  be  poor,  let  him  close  this  volume  at 
this  page  and  go  out,  Sunday  as  it  is,  and  hunt 
up  his  little  creditor,  and  pay  that  little  bill,  lest 
the  angel  of  death  come  upon  him  this  day,  and 
he  go  to  the  judgment-seat  with  this  corroding 
sin  eating  in  upon  his  moral  nature.  Let  him 
make  no  hypocritical  defence  that  it  is  Sunday. 
Sunday  ?  Why  better  than  any  prayer  that  you 
can  offer  in  the  closet,  at  the  family-altar,  or  in 
the  church,  would  be  this  deed  of  simple  justice. 
Your  debt  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  down 
on  the  exchange  can  stand  over  until  to-morrow, 
but  the  hire  of  the  laborer  which  you  have  kept 
back  cries  !  And  the  cry  hath  entered  into  the 
ears  of  the  Lord  of  hosts. 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  265 

Let  that  tremendous  name  shake  your  conscience 
to  its  very  centre.  You  may  be  too  superb  to  pay 
attention  to  the  small  debt  due  your  neighbor; 
but  God  is  so  great  that  He  can  pay  attention  to 
the  least  of  things.  We  may  be  so  self-absorbed 
as  to  be  able  to  listen  only  to  some  great  news, 
some  great  scheme,  some  great  thought  ;  but  God 
is  so  great  that  into  His  ear  enters  the  sigh,  not 
to  say  the  cry,  of  the  poor  field  hand,  the  poor 
needle-worker,  sent  up  from  barn  or  from  garret 
unto  Him.  And  little  and  needy  as  the  sufferer 
is,  the  Lord  who  hears  him,  let  us  remember,  is  the 
"  Lord  of  hosts,"  the  Lord  that  commands  all  the 
physical  forces  and  all  the  spiritual  dynamics  of  the 
universe,  the  Lord  who  can  bring  to  the  rescue  of 
the  lowliest  every  power  that  makes  and  shapes 
and  shakes  the  universe  which  He  hath  created. 

In  addition  to  covetousness  and  oppression, 
James  presents  to  their  conscience  the  sin  of 
voluptuousness.  There  is  nothing  in  any  part  of 
Holy  Scripture  to  teach  that  there  is  any  wrong 
in  the  rational  enjoyment  of  the  legitimate 
pleasures  of  this  pleasant  life.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Scriptures  confirm  the  teachings  of  nature, 
namely,  that  the  Heavenly  Father  is  provident  of 
His  children,  making  all  nature  serve  them  ;  not 
bringing  them  upon  the  planet  until  all  arrange- 
ments had  been  made,  so  that  a  race  of  human 
beings,  living  properly,  would  exist  in  a  condition 
of  perfect  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  com- 


266  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

fort.  His  storing  of  the  coal  in  the  cellar  of  the 
mansion  of  man,  that  it  might  afford  heat  for  his 
body,  fire  for  his  kitchen,  illumination  for  his 
nights,  and  steam  for  his  progress,  is  ample  proof 
of  this.  The  obvious  intent  of  the  Creator,  as  all 
His  plans  do  show,  is  that  His  children  may  be 
happy.  His  moral  law  shows  the  same  thing. 
Nothing  is  put  about  a  child  of  God  to  fence  him 
in  ;  but  everything  to  fence  destruction  out.  The 
moral  law  is  not  a  prison  but  a  fortress. 

And  so  the  Gospel  of  the  Blessed  God  shows  us 
that,  even  when  we  had  gone  out  and  exposed 
ourselves  to  the  extremest  spiritual  calamity, 
God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only- 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  He 
desires  that  we  shall  see  life,  that  we  shall  have 
life  and  have  it  more  abundantly.  His  disposition 
toward  us  is  declared  in  the  statement  of  the 
Apostle,  that  "  He  giveth  us  all  things  richly  to 
enjoy."  Supposing  a  certain  amount  of  enjoy- 
ment to  be  possible  to  any  one  man  in  his  lifetime, 
it  is  plain  that  the  excesses  of  one  day  make  drafts 
upon  another  day;  it  may  be,  upon  all  days.  If 
he  have  a  thousand  days  to  live  and  ten  thousand 
dollars  be  put  at  his  command,  it  is  plain  that  he 
will  have  the  purchasing  power  of  ten  dollars  for 
every  day  in  his  life.  But  if  he  spend  fifty  dollars 
a  day  in  the  first  hundred  days,  it  is  quite  plain 
that  he  would  have  less  than  six  dollars  a  day 


TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  267 

during  the  remaining  nine  hundred.  And  if  he 
spend  a  hundred  dollars  a  day  for  the  first  hundred 
days,  the  remaining  nine  hundred  would  be  spent 
in  absolute  penury.  This  is  a  rigid  mathematical 
calculation,  which  does  not  do  justice  to  the  case, 
for  life  is  composed  of  so  many  factors,  and  each 
man  has  so  many  faculties  and  connections  that 
an  impairment  of  a  man  is  a  wider  injury  than  the 
removal  of  anything  which  can  be  represented  by 
numbers. 

To  these  destructive  excesses  great  wealth 
tempts  any  man,  no  matter  what  may  be  his 
moral  qualities.  The  persons  whom  jAMES  ad- 
dressed had  been  living  in  this  extravagant, 
voluptuous  way,  which  made  earth  their  home,  a 
home  they  desired  to  live  in  forever  ;  which  made 
work  and  duty  disagreeable  to  them  ;  which  had 
brought  them  to  a  state  of  mind  that  engaged 
all  their  faculties  in  discovering  modes  of  enjoy- 
ment, rather  than  methods  of  usefulness.  And 
so,  their  lives  had  come  to  be  beastly,  as  beasts 
are  fed  in  the  stalls  and  fattened  for  the  day  when 
they  are  to  be  slaughtered  ;  and  so,  the  high- 
est characteristic  of  their  whole  nature  was  this, 
that  they  were  simply  _/?/  to  be  killed.  We  find, 
in  our  own  day,  that  men  of  enormous  wealth  do 
often  spend  their  money  in  such  a  fashion  that, 
while  it  fattens  their  hearts,  it  brings  on  the  day 
of  their  doom. 

The  luxury  of  the  rich  Jews,  in  the  time  of  jAMES, 


268  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

was  like  that  of  their  forefathers,  as  described 
by  the  prophet  Amos  (6  : 4),  "  That  lie  npon  beds 
of  ivory,  and  stretch  themselves  upon  their  conches, 
and  eat  the  lamb  out  of  the  flock,  and  the  calves 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  stall ;  that  chant  to  the 
sound  of  the  viol,  and  invent  to  themselves  instru- 
ments of  music  like  David ;  that  drink  wine  in 
bozvls,  and  anoint  themsclv  s  zvith  chief  ointments  ; 
but  they  are  not  grieved  for  the  affliction  of 
Joseph  !  " 

The  result  in  the  days  of  Amos,  as  that  in  the 
days  of  James,  will  always  be  the  result  of  such  a 
course  of  conduct.  Whenever  Church  people  in- 
dulge the  pleasures  of  the  flesh  to  such  a  degree 
that  they  become  careless  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  Church,  whenever  it  does  not  make  them 
mourn  that  religion  is  languishing  and  sin  is  pre- 
vailing, then  their  pleasures  become  their  snare, 
and  their  bodily  enjoyment  will  end  in  the  spirit- 
ual death. 

The  fourth  sin  with  which  James  charges  the 
rich,  the  worldly,  and  the  wanton  Jews  of  his  day, 
is  the  oppression  of  the  righteous,  even  to  the 
taking  of  their  lives.  The  phrase,  "the  just," 
which  he  uses  in  verse  6,  has  received  many  in- 
terpretations. One  takes  it  to  mean  that  whole 
body  of  people  who  had  fallen  under  the  hatred 
of  the  Jews,  from  whom  they  had  separated  them- 
selves ;  the  latter  had  the  power  of  money  to 
follow  up,  to  harass,  and  to  destroy  those  whom 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  269 

they  hated  for  ecclesiastical  reasons.  Their  gen- 
eral disposition  was  hatred  to  the  good  ;  their 
general  course  of  conduct,  the  destruction  of  the 
good.  But  there  can  be  no  objection,  it  would 
seem,  to  translating  it  "  the  Just  One,"  and  ap- 
plying the  phrase  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
James  knew  that  Stephen  had  charged  the 
Council  with  murdering  "the  Just  One"  (Acts  7  : 
62),  that  "the  Just  One"  was  the  title  given  to 
our  Lord  (Acts  3  :  14,  and  22  :  14),  and  that 
their  crime  in  murdering  Jesus  was  presented  as 
all  the  more  atrocious  because  He  had  rightfully 
claimed  to  be  their  Messiah.  He  seems  to  be 
echoing  again  the  words  of  Jesus,  who  told  the 
Jews  of  His  generation,  that  upon  them  was  to 
come  all  the  righteous  blood  shed  from  the  days 
of  Abel  to  the  days  of  Zacharias. 

If  the  application  of  the  verse  be  made  either 
to  the  good  in  general,  or  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  particular,  there  is  something  very 
striking  in  the  omission  of  the  conjunction. 
"Ye  have  condemned,  ye  have  killed,  the  Just," 
expresses  the  rapidity  of  the  action  and  result  of 
their  maliciousness.  They  seemed  to  be  so 
afraid  that  after  condemning  a  good  man  He 
should  escape  slaughter,  that  they  hurried  up  His 
death,  although,  as  a  lamb  before  the  shearers  is 
dumb,  He  opened  not  His  mouth.  There  is  a 
touch  of  sweetness  in  the  title  which  James 
gives  to  his  crucified  Brother — "The  Just  One," 


2/0  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

for  he  himself,  among  his  people,  had  gone  by  the 
name  of  "James  the  Just."  But  his  slain  Broth- 
er had  become  his  risen  Lord,  and  by  His  resur- 
rection and  ascension  had  so  established  the  jus- 
tice of  His  claims  to  the  Messiahship,  that  ever 
hereafter  James  would  transfer  the  title  to  Jesus, 
and  have  Jesus  known  as  "  the  Just  One," 
amongst  all  the  just  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  in 
all  the  ages  of  the  history  of  mankind. 


XII. 

The  Final  Theme. 

CHAPTER   v.,   7-20. 
THE   FINAL   THEME  :    PATIENCE. 

JAMES  now  approaches  the  final  theme  of  his 
epistle  in  an  address  to  his  Christian  breth- 
ren. The  connection  seems  to  be  that,  since 
such  great  miseries  are  to  come  upon  their  per- 
secutors, they  may  well  be  exhorted  to  endur- 
ance and  patience.  He  turns  from  his  address  to 
the  un-Christian  Jews  to  speak  to  his  own  breth- 
ren, to  those  who  were  bound  to  him  not  only  by 
the  tie  of  nationality  but  by  their  being  members 
of  the  family  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

^^  Be  patient,  therefore,  bretJiren,  until  the  coming 
of  the  Lord.  Behold,  the  tiller  of  the  groimd 
waiteth  for  the  valued  fruit  of  the  ground,  be  ing 
patient  over  it,  until  he  receives  the  rain,  the  early 
and  the  latter.  Be  ye  also  patient ;  strengthen 
your  hearts  ;  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord  is  at  hand. 
Do  not  complain  one  against  another,  brethren,  that 
ye  be  not  condemned.  Behold,  the  Judge  standeth 
before  the  doors'' 

The  word  which  we  translate  "  patient "  has  a 
many-sided  meaning.  It  means  a  readiness  to 
suffer  long.     It  means  the  resistance  of  our  natu- 


2/2  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

ral  impatience  for  a  long  season.  It  means  a 
persistent  endurance  of  painful  experience.  It 
means  courage,  forbearance,  magnanimity,  the 
knowing  how  "  to  suffer  and  be  strong."  It  does 
not  mean  unfeelingness,  nor  stoicism.  It  means 
quiet  endurance  for  a  sufficient  reason. 
THE   COMING   OF   THE   LORD. 

The  reason  assigned  is  that  the  Lord  is  coming. 
He  is  coming  to  be  present  upon  earth.  This  was 
a  doctrine  held  in  all  apostolic  times,  and  shines 
through  all  the  New  Testament  Scripture,  as  in 
prophecy  it  shone  through  all  the  Old  Testament. 
As  the  predictions  of  the  Old  Testament  were 
fulfilled  when  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  made  His 
appearance  in  the  flesh  at  the  incarnation,  so  will 
all  predictions  of  the  New  Testament  be  fulfilled 
when  the  Lord  shall  come  again. 

The  certain  thing  is  that  He  will  come.  The 
uncertain  thing  is  when  He  will  come,  and  these 
two  combine  to  keep  our  faith  and  patience  up  to 
their  highest  point.  If  the  Lord  delay  His  coming 
year  after  year  and  century  after  century  our  faith 
would  utterly  fail  us,  unless  we  had  the  certainty 
that  He  zvoiild  come.  Again,  if  we  undertake  to 
fix  the  date  by  any  sort  of  application  of  mathe- 
matics to  prophecy,  and  there  be  any  fault  in  our 
figuring,  there  will  also  come  a  failure  of  our  faith. 
All  we  can  do  is  to  stand  by  the  assertion  of  the 
Sacred  Scriptures,  "  He  is  coming,"  looking  for- 
ward in  the  sure  faith  and  cheering  hope  that 
there  i$  to  be  another  epiphany  of  Jesus, 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  273 

Our  author  may  have  applied  the  phrase  to  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  to  destroy  the  city  of 
Jerusalem  and  sweep  away  the  old  Mosaic  insti- 
tutions;  as  we  now  know  that  "coming  of  the 
Lord  "  did  bring  upon  the  wicked,  rich  Jews  those 
miseries  which  James  told  them  were  coming  upon 
them.  But  to  the  faithful,  in  all  ages,  there  have 
been  events  which  may  be  very  properly  called, 
"  comings  of  the  Lord."  Surely,  when  a  Christian 
man  closes  his  career  at  death  there  is  a  coming 
of  the  Lord.  He  hath  promised  that  He  will 
come  again  and  take  us  unto  Himself,  that  where 
He  is,  there  we  may  be  also  (John  14). 

THE  EXAMPLE  OF  THE  FARMER. 

Then  James  encourages  his  brethren  to  patience 
by  the  example  of  the  husbandman.  The  tiller 
of  the  soil  plows  his  field,  casts  therein  his  precious 
seed-corn,  and  leaves  it  there,  and  waits  till  it  shall 
come  to  fruition.  Waits  for  the  rain,  for  the  early 
rain  and  the  latter  rain  He  waited  for  the 
Autumn  rain  before  he  sowed  ;  he  waits  for  the 
Spring  rain  before  he  gathers.  He  knows  the 
preciousness  of  the  fruit  that  shall  come.  He 
depends  upon  it  for  his  livelihood,  and  for  seed 
for  the  next  year's  sowing.  He  knows  that  he 
cannot  hasten  the  ripening  of  his  crop  by  affecting 
in  any  degree  the  sunshine  or  the  rain  ;  but  he 
also  knows  that,  according  to  the  laws  of  nature, 
seed  placed  in  the  earth  and  rained  upon  and 
sunned,  will  come  to  growing  crops.     So  surely 


2/4  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

does  a  faithful  man  know  that  the  good  seed 
which  he  is  sowing  in  faith  may  He  in  the  ground 
for  many,  many  days  ;  but  the  law  in  the  spiritual 
world  just  as  fimly  holds  as  in  the  natural;  and 
the  harvest  will  come. 

TIME   A   FACTOR. 

Wherefore  James  exhorts  his  brethren  to 
strengthen  their  hearts,  considering  that  their 
sufferings  cannot  be  long,  and  the  Lord  will  not 
stay  away  one  single  hour  beyond  the  time  when 
the  rescue  of  His  servants  demands  His  presence. 
One  thing  quite  necessary  for  a  high  moral 
character  is  to  take  the  factor  of  time  into  account. 
It  does  so  much  every  way.  It  loosens  and 
tightens,  it  lifts  up  and  casts  down,  it  straightens 
and  rectifies,  or,  at  least,  it  seems  to  do  so,  because 
the  operations  of  the  active  physical  and  spiritual 
forces  of  the  universe  require  time  as  certainly 
as  they  require  space.  When  Christian  people  are 
under  the  influence  of  thoughts  like  these,  while 
they  are  suffering  they  may  abstain  from  sighing 
and  from  groaning,  from  murmuring,  complaining, 
fault-finding,  grudging,  all  which  things  are  con- 
tained in  the  injunction,  "  Do  not  complain  one 
against  another,  brethren." 

THE  SIN  OF  GRUMBLING. 

Do  Christian  people  quite  sufficiently  consider 
the  sin  of  grumbling,  the  sin  of  being  discontented 
with  the  allotment  of  Providence,  as  to  the  time 
and  place  of  their  birth  ;  as  to  the  family  in  which 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  275 

they  were  born  ;  as  to  their  environment,  as  well 
as  their  heredity  ?  What  a  strange  sight  a  grum- 
bling Christian  is  !  He  is  a  man  who  believes 
that  God  hath  forgiven  his  sins,  that  Christ  hath 
borne  them  all  away,  that  his  Lord  has  gone  to 
prepare  a  place  for  him,  that  in  a  short  time  he 
will  be  where  neither  pain  nor  persecution  can 
reach  him,  where  the  load  of  life  will  be  laid 
down,  where  the  wicked  shall  cease  from  troub- 
ling and  the  weary  shall  be  forever  at  rest.  And 
yet  he  allows  small  and  transient  things  to  keep 
him  awake  in  the  night,  to  worry  him,  and  make 
him  peevish  and  fretful  and  cross  through  the 
day.  He  makes  his  own  burdens  more  distress- 
ing by  fretting  under  them,  and  thus  increases 
the  burdens  which  his  friends  have  to  bear.  How 
many  Christians  fail  to  put  their  grumblings  into 
the  category  of  their  sins.  But  James's  admo- 
nition, that  we  should  not  grumble  lest  we  be 
damned,  ought  to  arouse  us  to  the  duty  of  being 
patient,  and  to  the  fact  that  all  really  true  Chris- 
tian faith  increases  a  man's  manliness. 

He  both  warns  and  encourages  by  the  fact  that 
the  Judge  is  standing  before  the  very  doors.  He 
hears  everything  that  is  said,  and  He  knows, 
while  He  stands  at  the  door,  that  He  has  a  dear 
friend  within,  a  friend  who  is  suffering,  ah,  what 
bodily,  what  mental  pains,  and  yet,  in  memory  of 
the  sufferings  of  his  Lord,  with  faith  in  the  knowl- 
edge  and    sympathy  of  his    Lord,  is    sitting  in 


2/6  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

silence  and  bearing  it  all,  even  as  his  Lord  in 
His  agony  "  opened  not  His  mouth." 

THE  EXAMPLE  OF  THE  PROPHETS. 

He  draws  another  incentive  to  patience  and 
dissuasive  from  grumbling  from  the  example  of 
the  good  men  who  have  lived  in  other  ages. 

"  As  an  example  of  suffering  evil  and  of  patience, 
my  brethren,  take  the  prophets  who  have  spoken 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Behold,  we  call  them 
blessed  who  endured.  You  have  heard  of  the  en- 
durance of  Job  and  have  seen  the  end  of  the  Lord  ; 
for  very  compassionate  is  the  Lord  and  merciful'' 

Encouragement  may  be  found  for  those  in  suf- 
fering by  reviewing  the  lives  of  the  greatest  and 
the  best  men  that  ever  lived.  They  have  never 
been  found  amongst  those  who  were  wicked  and 
wanton,  pleasure -seekers  and  at  ease.  The 
greatest  line  of  men  known  to  those  to  whom  the 
epistle  was  addressed  were  the  prophets,  whose 
careers  are  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
ture. Were  any  of  them  easy-going  men  ?  Did 
their  eyes  stand  out  with  fatness  .■*  Did  they 
have  every  pleasure  the  flesh  desired  ?  Were 
their  days  spent  with  wine  and  their  nights  with 
women  ?  Were  they  clothed  in  purple  and  fine 
linen .-'  Did  their  mountains  stand  strong  and 
their  homes  abide  ?  No,  every  one  of  them  was 
a  man  harassed,  persecuted,  chased.  They  were 
strangers  and  pilgrims  in  the  earth.  They  for- 
sook the  homes  of  their  childhood  and  the  graves 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  277 

of  their  fathers,  and  went  into  strange  countries. 
They  left  the  fields  that  were  rich  and  went  to 
lands  where  they  must  toil.  They  were  tortured, 
they  had  trials  of  mockings  and  scourgings  ;  they 
had  bonds  and  imprisonments  ;  they  were  stoned 
and  torn  asunder  ;  they  went  about  in  sheep- 
skins and  goat-skins,  wandering  in  deserts  and 
mountains,  and  caves,  and  the  holes  of  the  earth. 
They  were  destitute  and  afflicted.  They  were 
stoned  and  sawn  asunder,  and  slain  with  the 
sword.  Who  are  we,  that  we  should  expect  to 
obtain  the  crowns  which  they  wear,  if  we  be  un- 
willing to  fight  the  battles  which  they  fought .-' 
And  nozv  we  call  them  "blessed."  If  they  had 
failed,  if  they  had  cast  the  burden  down,  if  they 
had  refused  the  fight,  if  they  had  fled  from  the 
cross,  no  one  would  consider  them  "blessed." 
They  would  have  failed  to  gain  immortal  fame. 
AN  ILLUSTRIOUS  GENTILE  SUFFERER. 
He  recalled  to  them  the  example  of  an  illus- 
trious Gentile  sufferer.  Job  was  not  always  pa- 
tient in  the  sense  of  being  speechless.  Some- 
times his  agonies  were  so  great  and  so  greatly 
increased  by  the  torturing  company  of  his  friends, 
that  they  wrung  from  him  cries  that  have  sound- 
ed through  all  history  down  to  our  days.  And 
yet  he  suffered  and  suffered,  concluding  every 
wail  of  his  spirit  with  words  which  expressed  the 
deepest  sentiment  of  his  soul:  "Though  He 
slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in   Him."     In  the  days 


2']o  The  Gospel  of  Coniinon  Scnst'. 

of  James,  the  Jewish  Christians,  it  is  said,  gave 
special  honor  to  the  name  of  Job.  Saint  as  he 
was,  he  suffered.  Suffering,  therefore,  is  not  in- 
compatible with  sainthood. 

There  seems  to  be  one  other  sentiment  in 
these  words,  namely,  that  no  suffering  can  be  so 
long  continued  that  it  will  not  come  to  an  end  ; 
that  no  waves  can  break  over  a  man  so  as  to 
drown  him  utterly  out  of  the  sight  of  God  ;  and 
that  the  greater  and  longer  the  suffering  which 
any  man  endures,  the  more  complete  and  illus- 
trious is  the  demonstration  which  the  conclusion 
thereof  affords  the  world  when  the  Lord  brings 
it  to  an  end,  and  crowns  it  with  the  great  glory. 
Such  men  become  monumental,  and  guide  the 
march  of  humanity  down  the  centuries. 
AGAINST   OATHS. 

As  our  author  is  drawing  to  the  close  of  his 
epistle  he  gives  his  brethren  several  directions, 
the  observance  of  which  would  lead  to  an  increase 
of  their  patience.  The  first  of  these  is  that  striking 
precept  in  the  I2th  verse  : 

^^ But  before  all,  brethren  mine,  do  not  szvcar, 
neither  by  heaven  nor  by  earth,  nor  by  any  other 
object  of  oath  ;  but  be  your  yes,  yes,  and  your  no, 
710  ;  that  you  fall  not  under  condemnatijny 

No  reader  can  fail  to  hear  in  these  words  an- 
other echo  of  the  words  of  Jesus  as  they  are  re- 
corded in  Matt.  5 :  34-37.  While  this  injunction 
covers  the  whole   ground  of  profanity,  it  may  be 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  279 

supposed  to  have  been  intended  for  jAMES's  earlier 
readers,  to  warn  them  against  certain  evils  into 
which  their  trials  for  the  sake  of  the  faith  were 
liable  to  plunge  them,  and  which  may  recur  from 
age  to  age  to  all  who  are  striving  to  serve  the  Lord 
Jesus  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity. 
VOWS  IN  TROUBLE, 
(i)  It  has  not  been  an  uncommon  thing  for  men 
to  take  vows  in  trouble,  as  if  they  would  do  them 
any  good.  They  have  promised  if  certain  ends 
could  be  attained  to  pursue  certain  courses  of  life  ; 
and  sometimes,  to  give  a  supposed  greater  ef^- 
cacy,  they  have  bound  themselves  with  oaths. 
The  Hebrew-Christians  in  the  first  century  were 
peculiarly  exposed  to  this.  The  evil  of  it  lay  in 
transferring  their  confidence  from  the  grace  and 
power  of  God  to  the  vows  which  they  were  making, 
and  thus  begetting  in  them  a  strong  tendency 
to  confidence  in  magic.  With  us  the  evil  may 
come  up  just  as  with  them.  At  times  when  men 
have  been  caught  in  exceedingly  tight  places  by 
reason  of  their  imprudence  or  their  sins,  in  times 
when  men  have  fallen  into  great  bodily  pain,  they 
have  thoughtlessly  sworn  that  if  God  would  deliver 
them  out  of  the  pressing  difficulties  they  would 
change  their  whole  course  of  life.  The  evil  of  this 
lies  in  the  supposition,  that  if  they  be  not  delivered 
as  they  desire  they  are  not  bound  to  dedicate 
themselves  to  God's  service.  It  is  on  that  sup- 
position these  men  have  been  living  before  their 
diflficulties  came.     If  they  be  extricated,  it  is   so 


28o  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

easy  to  forget  the  vow  and  return  to  the  old  modes 
of  Hfe.  If  a  man  vow,  he  should  pay  his  vow  unto 
the  Lord.  It  is,  however,  better  never  to  make  a 
vow,  but  to  walk  the  path  of  duty  dutifully.  It  is 
as  if  James  has  said,  "  Brethren,  do  not  vow  that  if 
this  storm  could  be  lifted  from  your  sky  you  will 
be  more  faithful  Christians  ;  you  are  bound  to  be 
faithful  as  it  is,  and  to  trust  God's  goodness  and 
mercy  to  shorten  or  lengthen  your  sufferings  as 
may  be  best." 

There  may  be  something  in  this  injunction 
applicable  to  our  modern  temperance  pledges. 
A  man  addicted  to  strong  drink,  and  feeling  the 
degradation  of  the  slavery  into  which  he  has  gone, 
signs  a  vow  that  he  will  never  drink  intoxicants. 
How  worthless  such  pledges  are  is  well  known 
both  to  those  who  make  and  those  who  adminis- 
ter them.  The  will-power  necessary  to  keep 
such  a  pledge  is  sufficient  to  enable  a  man  to 
break  the  habit  without  such  a  pledge.  If  he 
have  not  that  power>  he  will  certainly  violate  his 
pledge,  and  thus  hurt  himself  by  overloading  with 
falsehood  and  a  sense  of  failure,  a  spirit  already 
weakened  by  sinful  indulgences.  Better  not 
"  swear  off,"  but  break  off.  Instead  of  swearing 
that  you  will  never  drink  again,  pray  for  grace  to 
keep  you  from  ever  drinking  again,  and  continue 
to  pray  and  abstain  until  the  habit  be  broken. 
DISOWNING  THE  CHRISTIAN  PROFESSION. 

(2)  It  may  have  been  a  warning  to  them,  not 
to  swear  when  they  were  brought  before  Roman 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  281 

magistrates,  or  were  in  the  company  of  pagan 
persecutors,  in  order  to  show  by  such  words  that 
they  were  not  Christians.  The  whole  world  from 
the  beginning,  had  supposed  that  no  follower  of 
so  holy  a  person  as  Jesus  would  indulge  in  pro- 
fane language.  This  was  so  early  and  so  well 
known  that,  when,  on  the  last  night  of  Christ's 
suffering,  Peter  was  charged  with  being  one  of 
His  followers,  he  broke  into  profane  expressions, 
and  he  knew  that  that  would  be  an  argument  to 
convince  them  that  he  was  not  a  Christian.  And 
it  did. 

CONJURATION. 

(3)  The  injunction  might  have  applied  to  the 
temptation  there  was  among  them  to  conspire 
together  in  sworn  bands  against  their  persecu- 
tors ;  as  was  frequently  the  case  in  their  own 
age  and  has  been  ever  since.  In  our  English 
tongue  "  conjuration  "  once  meant  banding  to- 
gether with  oaths  and  not,  as  now,  attempts  at 
magical  processes.  James  saw  the  futility  of  all 
seditious  movements.  He  saw  that  it  plunged 
his  brethren  only  into  deeper  and  deeper  trou- 
bles ;  wherefore,  he  besought  them  not  to  seek 
such  modes  of  relief,  not  to  bind  themselves  to 
others,  or  others  to  themselves,  in  order  to  effect 
deliverance,  but  to  put  all  in  the  hand  of  God. 

PROFANITY. 

(4)  But  whether  any  or  all  of  these  considera- 
tions were  in  the  mind  of  our  author,  it  is  quite 


282  TIlc  Gospel  of  CoDivion  Sense. 

certain  that  he  pronounced  a  very  emphatic  de- 
nunciation against  profanity.  His  opening  phrase 
shows  the  depth  of  his  convictions.  Why,  be- 
fore all  things,  must  they  guard  against  profanity, 
if  profanity  itself  be  not  an  exceedingly  heinous 
offence  .-*  It  is  such,  lightly  as  it  is  esteemed, 
even  in  what  is  called  "good  society."  In  Chris- 
tian countries  at  this  day,  it  is  a  dire  and  dread- 
ful vice.  Men  take  the  name  of  the  Most  High 
in  vain,  using  it  lightly,  perhaps,  at  first,  under 
the  conviction  that  it  gives  strength  to  their 
rhetoric,  and  thus  glide  into  a  vice  which  saps 
the  moral  constitution.  The  sin  of  common  pro- 
fanity, or  swearing,  is  a  sin  against  God  and 
against  one's  self.  It  is  a  sin  against  God,  because 
it  deprives  Him  of  the  honor  due  His  name,  and 
is  in  direct  disobedience  to  His  commandment, 
which  sets  forth  His  opinion  of  such  language  in 
the  most  explicit  form:  "Thou  shalt  not  take 
the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain,  for  the 
Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  His 
name  in  vain." 

The  sin  is  not  mitigated  by  modifications  of 
phraseology.  Even  in  what  is  called  good  society 
in  England  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  the  phrase, 
"  by  Jove,"  a  phrase  sometimes  employed  by 
young  Americans  who  are  fond  of  aping  Angli- 
can manners,  interlarding  the  speech  of  men, 
young  and  old,  introduced  carelessly  without  re- 
gard to  rhetoric  or  to  sense.     One   may  as  well 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  283 

swear  "  by  God's  wounds  "  as  "  by  Zounds,"  and 
"  Gosh,"  and  "Golly,"  and  "Jeminy"  are  rustic 
synonymes  for  the  names  of  our  Creator  and 
Saviour. 

ITS   HURTFULNESS. 

We  need  not  push  our  reasoning  any  further  in 
this  direction  ;  it  is  enough  that  God  condemns  it. 
If  I  know  what  is  offensive  to  my  dearest  friend, 
I  avoid  it  ;  if  I  know  what  is  disgusting  to 
my  most  powerful  friend,  I  guard  my  habits  of 
speech  in  his  presence  ;  if  I  am  accustomed  to 
the  forbidden  words,  it  is  enough  for  me  to  know 
that  God  hates  the  profanation  of  His  name,  to 
make  me  avoid  using  it  carelessly  on  frivolous 
occasions.  In  the  next  place,  it  is  hurtful  to  any 
man  to  become  an  habitual  swearer.  It  is  an  ef- 
fectual bar  to  his  ever  being  great.  It  is  utterly 
impossible,  whatever  other  gifts  and  opportunities 
be  afforded,  that  a  man  shall  ever  reach  the  ut- 
most possible  greatness  of  humanity,  who  himself 
fails  to  have  reverence  for  that  which  is  great. 
Reverence  is  the  spring  of  all  aspiration  ;  rever- 
ence is  the  foundation  for  all  lofty  upbuilding  of 
character. 

Not  only  is  irreverence  to  be  avoided,  but  rever- 
ence is  to  be  cultivated,  that  reverence  which  has 
a  profound  respect  for  all  that  is  lofty  in  thought, 
in  emotion,  in  existence.  Now,  it  is  manifestly 
impossible  for  any  man  to  cultivate  reverence  for 
anything,  who  has  no  reverence  for  the  highest 


284  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

thing.  The  thought  of  God,  as  Daniel  Webster 
said,  is  the  greatest  thought  which  has  entered 
into  the  mind  of  man.  When  in  his  common  con- 
versation, on  trivial  occasions,  a  man  plucks  down 
that  loftiest  thought  and  spits  upon  it,  he  de- 
prives himself  of  any  possibility  of  rising  to  lofty 
intellectual  and  moral  heights.  This  should  be 
pressed  upon  the  attention  of  every  man,  especially 
upon  the  young,  that  they  may  not  fall  into  this 
degrading  habit. 

ITS  UTTER  USELESSNESS. 
The  injunction  of  jAMES  is  enforced  when  we 
consider  the  utter  iiselessness  of  a  vice  which  is 
disgusting  to  God  and  degrading  to  man.  It  is 
a  gratuitous  sin.  Murder,  adultery,  and  robbery 
may  be  committed  under  the  stimulus  of  a  pas- 
sionate excitement ;  but  when  a  man  uses  profane 
language,  he  goes  out  of  his  way  to  pay  an  un- 
solicited compliment  to  the  devil.  Stealing  may 
enrich  a  man,  murder  may  gratify  his  thirst  of 
vengeance,  but  profanity  brings  him  nothing.  No 
one  respects  him  more  for  swearing.  Although 
a  solemn  judicial  oath  increases  confidence  in 
the  word  of  a  man,  who  proceeds  to  give  testi- 
mony thereafter,  profane  swearing  diminishes  re- 
spect for  his  truthfulness.  A  man  who  will  thus 
swear  will  lie.  If  he  do  not  observe  the  most 
solemn  of  God's  commandments,  he  is  not  liable 
to  observe  any  other.  If  he  takes  the  name  of 
the  Lord  in  vain,  what  is  to  prevent  his  bear- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  285 

ing  false  witness  ?  If  he  do  not  regard  what  is 
due  to  God,  will  he  respect  what  is  due  to 
man  ? 

When,  in  conversation,  a  man  states  some- 
thing as  a  fact,  and  then  says,  "  T  swear  it  is  so," 
even  when  he  does  not  use  the  name  of  God,  the 
hearer  naturally  has  his  faith  in  the  statement 
weakened.  If  a  speaker  has  no  confidence  in  his 
own  plain  statement,  how  should  he  expect  others 
to  have  ?  The  added  phrase,  "  I  swear  it  is  so," 
is  indicative  of  the  wavering  of  his  faith  in  him- 
self. When  a  man  is  so  notoriously  careful  of  his 
speech  that  his  affirmation  may  be  always  under- 
stood to  be  affirmation  and  his  denial  to  be  de- 
nial, those  who  are  acquainted  with  him  have  a 
constantly  increasing  confidence  in  his  asser- 
tions. 

Surely  of  all  people  Christians  should  be  the 
most  reverent,  because  God  has  revealed  Himself 
to  them,  not  only  in  all  the  most  solemn  aspects 
of  His  character,  as  He  has  to  other  peoples,  but 
also  in  all  the  most  tender  characteristics  of  His 
nature.  The  God  who  is  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  Himself  ought  to  be  a  God  before 
whom  all  the  world  should  stand  in  worshipful 
homage.  There  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  Ho- 
sea  (4:  2):  "By  swearing,  and  lying,  and  killing, 
and  stealing,  and  committing  adultery,  they  break 
out,  and  blood  toucheth  blood,"  or,  as  it  might 
be  translated,  "bloods  touch  bloods."  This  shows 


286  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

how  the  whole  line  of  crimes  follows  when  rev- 
erence for  God  is  removed. 

JUDICIAL  OATHS. 

The  principle  which  lies  at  the  root  of  this, 
plainly  points  to  the  importance  of  guarding 
against  the  multiplication  of  even  judicial  oaths. 
Men  brought  to  give  testimony  upon  frivolous 
questions  should  not  be  put  to  the  test  of  the 
oath.  Our  courts  of  law  would  soon  begin  to  find 
that  if  testimony  were  taken  upon  a  simple 
affirmation  of  the  witness  there  would  be  as 
good  an  opportunity  of  reaching  the  truth  as 
now  ;  and  that  when  the  temptation  to  prevari- 
cate or  lie  under  oath  came  to  a  man,  it  could  be 
more  easily  resisted  if  he  had  not  been  accus- 
tomed to  swear  over  and  over  again  in  matters 
of  small  importance. 

PRAYER  CURE. 

After  warning  his  brethren  against  profanity 
and  teaching  them  to  cultivate  a  hallowed  spirit 
in  general,  James  turns  to  some  directions  to  them 
when  they  are  personally  in  trouble  or  physically 
sick. 

"/y  any  one  among  you  suffering  evil  ?  Let  him 
pray.  Is  any  cheerful?  Let  him  siiig.  Is  any 
sick  ?  Let  him  call  for  the  Elders  of  the  congrega- 
tion ;  and  let  them  pray  over  him,  having  anointed 
him  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord ;  and  the 
prayer  of  faith  shall  help  the  sick  and  th  Lord 
shall  raise  him  up  ;  and  although  he  have  com- 
mitted sins  it  shall  be  forgiven  him.'' 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  287 

To  Christians,  as  to  other  men,  there  come 
varieties  of  moods  and  conditions.  Sometimes 
they  are  afflicted,  sometimes  they  are  prospering, 
and  so,  sometimes  they  are  sad,  and  sometimes 
they  are  glad.  What  shall  a  Christian  do  when 
he  is  suffering  evil  or  enduring  any  kind  of  afflic- 
tion .''  Let  him  not  grumble  nor  be  peevish  ;  let 
him  not  break  forth  into  profanity ;  let  him 
pray.  Communion  with  God,  fellowship  with  the 
Heavenly  Father  ;  this  is  the  best  comfort  in 
trouble.  On  the  other  hand,  are  his  affairs  such 
as  make  him  cheerful .-'  Let  him  not  go  into  a  riot, 
nor  the  companionship  of  wassailers.  Let  him 
break  forth  into  song,  and  let  those  songs  not  be 
gay  and  giddy  ditties,  but  psalms  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving  and  grateful  love.  Christian  people 
should  have  their  memories  stored  with  the  very 
best  parts  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  and  other 
hymns  of  prayer  and  praise,  as  the  Apostle  Paul 
wrote  to  the  Colossians  (3  :  16),  "  Let  the  word  of 
Christ  dwell  in  you  richly  ;  in  all  wisdom  teach- 
ing and  admonishing  yourselves,  with  psalms  and 
hymns  and  spiritual  songs  singing  ;  with  grace  in 
your  hearts  unto  God."  There  is  no  restriction 
here  to  any  particular  psalms,  although  those  of 
David  were  generally  known  to  the  persons  to 
whom  James  wrote,  and  were  in  Hebrew  distin- 
guished as  Shurim,  Tehillim,  and  Mizmorim. 
There  were  undoubtedly  other  psalms  and  hymns 
and  spiritual  songs  known  to  him,  which  have  not 


288  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

come  down  to  our  day.  The  teaching  of  the 
Apostle  is,  that  instead  of  any  profane,  worldly, 
and  frivolous  comforts  in  affliction  and  in  joy, 
Christians  should  find  sacred  modes  of  expressing 
their  sentiments  and  comforting  their  hearts. 
THE  EARLY  CHURCH  ORDER. 
We  now  come  to  a  direction  of  the  Apostle 
which  points  back  to  certain  things  in  the  origin 
of  the  Christian  Church,  which  demand  careful 
consideration.  The  ideas  ordinarily  attached  to 
the  word  "  Church  "  in  modern  times  do  not  seem 
to  have  entered  into  the  minds  of  the  Apostles  or 
of  the  early  Christians.  It  grew  up  from  small 
beginnings,  in  the  early  centuries,  until  it  consoli- 
dated itself  into  the  hard  forms  in  which  it  stands 
in  modern  times.  There  seems  to  have  been  no 
such  thing  as  an  incorporated  body  to  which  who- 
soever belonged  was  a  saved  man,  and  failure  of 
membership  in  which  involved  spiritual  destruction. 
Those  who  loved  Jesus  for  His  personality,  who 
received  Him  as  the  Messiah  of  God,  adored  Him 
as  the  spiritual  ruler  of  the  universe,  and  trusted 
Him  as  the  Savior  of  their  souls,  naturally  came 
together.  There  was  one  doctrine,  namely,  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  from  the  dead.  They  did 
not  speak  of  "  doctrines,"  as  if  there  were  more 
than  one.  Those  who  believed  that  Christ  had 
raised  Himself  by  the  power  of  God  from  the  dead, 
therewith  drew  into  their  creed  every  other  thing 
which   was   necessary  to  be    believed   for  the   re- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  289 

generation  of  their  lives  and  the  guidance  of  their 
moral  conduct. 

As  soon  as  there  was  any  considerable  number 
of  such  people,  there  would  naturally  be  persons 
who  would  discharge  representative  duties,  persons 
to  whom  some  power  would  be  delegated  by  the 
congregation  for  executive  purposes.  They  were 
the  Presbyters.  Of  these  there  would  naturally  be 
a  president,  one  who  should  have  the  oversight  of 
the  whole  congregation.  An  overseer,  "  episcopos  " 
in  the  Greek  tongue,  was  one  who  episcopated, 
that  is,  kept  oversight,  and  hence,  the  president  of 
the  Presbyters  was  the  Bishop  of  the  congregation. 
A  Bishop  does  not  seem  to  have  extended  his 
oversight  beyond  his  own  congregation,  so  that 
in  New  Testament  language  a  Bishop  is  what  we 
call  a  Pastor.  The  Presbyters  might  rotate  in  the 
oflfice,  or  they  might  all  of  them  fall  back  into  the 
general  congregation,  and  other  brethren  take  their 
places,  the  only  ofifice  for  life  being  that  of  the 
Apostle,  which  expired  when  the  last  man  who 
had  seen  the  risen  Jesus  and  been  by  Him  called 
to  the  Apostleship,  departed  from  this  world.  This 
is  the  short  and  simple  statement  of  what  we  know 
of  the  early  Christian  Society. 

CHARISMATA. 

In  the  early  "  Church "  there  were  certain 
spiritual  gifts,  sometimes  called  charismata;  a 
word  which  sheds  very  little  light  upon  the  thing 
itself.     After   all  that  has  been  written  on   this 


290  The  Gospel  of  Connnon  Sense. 

subject,  Neander  is  most  probably  nearly  right 
when  he  gives  the  definition  of  the  charisma  as 
a  capacity  in  which  the  pozuer  and  activity  of  the 
indwelling  Spirit  are  revealed.  Whether  this 
capacity  had  been  immediately  imparted  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  or  was  merely  a  natural  capacity 
sanctified  and  enlarged  by  the  principle  of  the  new 
life,  the  Holy  Spirit  so  operated  upon  men,  for  the 
edification  of  Christian  people,  as  to  furnish  them 
with  a  new  power  to  use  their  natural  endowments 
for  the  upbuilding  of  the  "congregation." 

There  is  an  enumeration  of  these  gifts  in  First 
Corinthians  12  ;  in  Ephesians  4,  and  in  Romans 
12.  In  the  first  passage,  it  is  said  of  Christ,  that 
H  "gave  some  to  be  Apostles,  and  some  proph- 
ets, and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pastors  and 
teachers."  In  First  Corinthians  12,  in  addition 
to  those  just  mentioned,  it  is  said  that  to  each 
one  "is  given"  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit 
"  to  profit  withal."  Then  follows  a  list  including 
"preaching"  and  "teaching"  and  to  those  are 
added  "  to  another  faith  in  the  same  Spirit,  and 
to  another  the  gift  of  healing  in  the  one  Spirit, 
and  to  another  working  of  miracles,  and  to  an- 
other discerning  of  spirits,  and  to  another  divers 
kinds  of  tongues,  and  to  another  the  interpreta- 
tion o^  tongues." 

In  the  close  of  the  chapter,  Paul  gives  an- 
other catalogue  :  "  God  hath  set  some  in  the 
congregation  (Church);  first,  Apostles  ;  secondly, 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  291 

prophets  ;  thirdly,  teachers  ;  then  miracles  ;  then 
gifts  of  healings,  helps,  governments,  divers  kinds 
of  tongues."  Perhaps  the  Presbyters  in  that  early 
day  enjoyed  all  these  extraordinary  gifts  in  their 
body,  some  having  one  and  some  another  ;  we  do 
not  know  whether  any  one  person  exhibited  all 
the  gifts.  And  perhaps  they  were  selected  from 
the  congregation  of  believers  because  they  had 
these  spiritual  gifts.  Whether  that  be  so  or  not, 
it  is  plain  that  the  chief  gift  was  to  be  an  "  Apos- 
tle," laying  the  foundation  of  the  faith  where  it 
never  had  been  built  before.  Next  in  rank  and 
importance  was  "  preaching,"  the  power  to  set 
forth  the  salvation  of  God  in  such  a  way  as  to 
persuade  men  to  come  into  its  enjoyment.  Next 
the  building  up  of  Christians  upon  their  most  holy 
faith  by  teaching  the  things  of  the  Spirit  to  the 
children  of  God.  After  that,  not  numbered  nor 
ranked,  follow  those  other  things. 

DIRECTIONS  TO  THE  SICK. 
James  comes  now  to  give  a  direction  to  those 
who  are  sick,  and  it  may  be  well  to  impress  the 
very  first  thing  which  he  says  upon  the  attention 
of  all  Christians  who  fall  into  sickness,  and  to 
present  it  in  the  light  not  simply  of  a  privilege 
but  of  a  moral  duty.  The  first  thing  the  sick  man 
was  to  do  was  to  "■send  for  the  Elders"  of  the 
congregation  to  which  he  belonged,  not  of  any 
other  congregation.  Amongst  them  would  be 
found   some   who   had  the  gift  of  healing.     Any 


292  T)ie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

one  such  man  would  know,  upon  coming  into  the 
presence  of  the  sick  man,  whether  or  not  he  ought 
to  pray  for  his  recovery.  This  the  Apostle  calls 
the  gift  of  "  faith."  The  Holy  Spirit  would  so  im- 
press the  Elder  that  he  would  know  that  it  was 
God's  will  that  this  invalid  should  be  restored  ; 
and  he  might  then  pray  for  him.  In  that  case 
the  positive  promise  was  that  the  man  should  be 
restored.  In  such  case  the  man  should  be 
miraculously  healed.  There  is  no  injunction  as 
to  anointing  with  oil.  It  is  assumed  that  they 
would  do  this,  because  it  was  customary  in  that 
time  that  there  should  be  such  anointings.  They 
were  frequent  in  the  old  dispensation,  and  passed 
over  into  the  new. 

The  twelve  earliest  preachers  of  the  Gospel 
were  accustomed  to  anoint,  as  we  learn  from 
Mark  (6:  13).  As  a  sanitary  agent,  pure,  rich 
oil,  used  as  an  unguent,  is  healthy,  and  has  been 
employed  by  all  nations  in  all  times  for  hygienic 
purposes.  It  has  been  stated  in  our  day,  that 
one  of  the  best  cures  for  scarlet  fever  is,  to  take 
the  skin  from  a  freshly  boiled  ham,  with  the  fat 
on  it,  and  with  it  rub  the  whole  person  of  the 
invalid.  In  the  case  stated  by  James,  it  does 
not  appear  whether  or  not  the  oil  was  relied 
upon  at  all  as  a  remedial  agent. 

The  injunction  here  is,  that  after  the  Elders 
had  anointed  the  sick  man,  which  any  friend  in 
that  country  would  have  done,  then  they  should 


TJie  Gospel  of  Coniinon  Sense.  293 

pray  with  him,   and  the  promise   was,  that  the 
prayer  of  faith  should  help,  and  heal,  and  save 
that  sick  person  ;  that    "  the  Lord  should  raise 
him  up."     This  was  a  miraculous  cure. 
SICKNESS   AND    SIN. 

There  is  one  other  thing  to  be  noticed  in  this. 
The  root  of  all  sickness,  primarily,  is  sin.  The 
general  sinfulness  of  our  nature  crops  out  in  our 
infirmities.  Particular  sicknesses  also  are  the 
fruits  of  particular  sins.  It  was  promised,  in  case 
the  man  had  sinned,  for  whom  the  Elders  were 
under  the  direction  of  God  to  pray,  that  the  sin 
should  at  the  same  time  be  pardoned,  and  that 
God's  healing  work  would  be  done  thoroughly  in 
soul  and  body,  as  when  Jesus  said  to  the  man 
who  was  healed,  "Go  in  peace,  and  sin  no  more." 
This  gift  of  miraculous  insight  and  healing,  like 
all  other  things  necessary  for  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  the  faith  in  the  beginning,  has  now  passed 
away.  Indeed  these  gifts  were  not  continued 
amongst  Christians  very  long  after  the  time  in 
which  James  wrote.  He  himself  had  been  called 
to  the  Presbyterate  and  chosen  to  the  Pastorate, 
although  apparently  never  assigned  to  the  work 
of  the  Apostolate. 

But  although  the  particular  form  set  forth  by 
James  be  not  continued  among  Christians  to  this 
day,  there  is  nothing  in  Holy  Scripture  or  Chris- 
tian history  to  forbid  the  supposition,  that  from 
time  to  time  there  have  occurred  certain  indica- 


294  ^/^^  Gospel  of  Cojrmion  Sense. 

tions  that  God  so  bestowed  the  "  gifts  "  on  cer- 
tain individuals,  under  certain  circumstances,  as 
to  keep  alive  amongst  His  people  a  knowledge  of 
His  great  power  and  the  desire  to  cultivate  their 
faith  in  God. 

From  time  to  time  there  have  been  occur- 
rences which  seemed  to  show  this  very  plainly. 
So  far  as  they  have  come  to  the  personal  knowl- 
edge of  the  writer  of  these  pages,  or  have  been  so 
narrated  to  him  as  to  appear  to  be  entirely  cred- 
ible, these  three  things  seem  to  have  always  con- 
curred when  the  Presbyter  has  been  called:  First, 
the  impression  has  been  powerfully  made  that 
prayer  should  be  offered  for  the  entire  recovery 
of  the  patient.  Secondly,  the  patient  has  con- 
curred in  this  impression  and  united  in  the  prayer 
for  his  own  recovery.  Thirdly,  the  person  so  re- 
covered was  duly  and  truly  penitent  of  all  his  sins 
and  seeking  forgiveness  for  them  as  a  thing  much 
more  important  than  his  restoration  to  physical 
health. 

LUTHER'S  PRAYER  FOR  MYCONIUS. 

There  is  nothing  in  reason,  nothing  in  common 
sense,  nothing  in  the  word  of  God  to  set  aside 
the  belief,  that  now,  from  time  to  time,  God  will, 
in  answer  to  prayer,  raise  up  a  man  from  sick- 
ness unto  perfect  health.  It  is  told  that  when 
Myconius  lay  apparently  dying,  he  wrote  a  letter 
to  his  friend  Luther,  who,  after  reading  the  let- 
ter, immediately  fell  on  his  knees  and  began  to 


IJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  295 

pray.  "O  Lord,  my  God!  no,  Thou  must  not 
take  yet  our  brother.  Myconius,  to  Thyself;  Thy 
cause  will  not  prosper  without  him.  Amen  !  " 
And  after  praying  thus,  he  rose  up,  and  wrote  to 
his  sick  brother,  "These  is  no  cause  for  fear,  dear 
Myconius  ;  the  Lord  will  not  let  me  hear  that 
thou  art  dead.  You  shall  not  and  must  not  die. 
Amen  !  "  There  words  made  a  powerful  impres- 
sion on  the  heart  of  the  dying  Myconius,  and 
aroused  him  in  such  a  manner  that  the  idcer  in  his 
lungs  discharged  itself,  and  he  recovered.  "  I 
wrote  to  you  that  it  would  be  so,"  answered 
Luther  to  the  letter  which  announced  the  re- 
covery of  his  friend. 

But  there  is  nothing  in  reason,  or  common 
sense,  or  Holy  Scripture,  to  justify  the  setting  up 
of  faith-shops  and  the  peddling  out  of  faith-cures 
and  the  neglect  of  known  remedial  agents.  There 
is  nothing  to  justify  the  belief  that,  when  any 
body  anoints  any  body  else  who  is  sick  and  asks 
for  his  recovery,  that  recovery  would  be  guaran- 
teed. If  that  were  so,  death  would  soon  be  ban- 
ished from  the  planet.  Even  if  every  time  a  holy 
man  prayed  for  another  holy  man  that  was  sick, 
for  his  recovery  and  the  continuance  of  his  benef- 
icent presence  amongst  his  followers,  that  prayer 
were  obliged  to  be  granted,  a  physical  immortal- 
ity would  have  been  given  to  Moses  and  Elijah, 
to  David  and  Isaiah,  amongst  the  Israelites,  and 
to  the  long  line  of  holy  workers  in  the  Christian 


296  T]ic  Gospel  of  Counnon  Sense. 

era.  If  that  were  so,  John  Wesley  and  George 
Whitfield,  Martin  Luther  and  John  Calvin,  would 
be  alive  to-day,  and  your  father  and  mother,  and 
mine,  and  multitudes  of  the  godly  whom  the 
world  has  not  willingly  "  let  die." 

GIVING  UP  THE  GHOST, 
We  must  not  leave  this  thing  without  calling  to 
our  minds  the  general  law  of  the  effect  of  spirit 
upon  matter.  It  is  very  certain  that  a  man  may 
depress  his  physical  constitution  by  bad  habits  of 
the  mind,  or  he  may  quicken  it  by  the  healthful 
employment  of  his  mental  faculties  and  the  wise 
direction  of  the  actions  of  his  will.  Many  a  man 
has  died  when  he  might  have  lived  if  he  had  posi- 
tively refused  "  to  give  up  the  ghost."  Each 
man's  moral  duty  is  to  hold  on  to  "  the  ghost." 
No  man  has  a  right  to  die  in  any  sense  which 
involves  his  own  volition.  In  that  single  sen- 
tence is  contained  the  truth  which  makes  the  im- 
morality of  suicide.  By  the  force  of  his  will  a 
man  must  drive  all  his  energies  to  the  defence  of 
the  weak  spot  in  his  bodily  constitution,  and  re- 
pair the  waste  places  by  mind-operation.  There 
is  that  which  physiologists  have  called,  "  Vis 
medicatrix  Jiaturcs,''  some  physical  force  which 
of  itself  heals  wounds  without  external  applica- 
tion. There  is  also  a  "  Vis  medicatrix  mentis^' 
a  force  of  the  mind,  which  goes  toward  repairing 
the  wastes  of  the  intellect.  These  two  forces 
may  operate  antagonistically  or  in  conjunction. 


TJic  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  2gy 

So  far  as  there  is  a  will  power  in  him,  each  man  is 
bound  to  help  in  the  invigoration  of  those  two 
forces. 

EXTREME   UNCTION. 

Whether  there  be  any  physical  or  spiritual  help 
in  the  anointing  of  a  man  who  is  dying,  uniting 
that  anointing  with  prayer,  as  in  the  case  of"  ex- 
treme unction  "  among  our  Roman  Catholic  breth- 
ren, we  may  have  to  say  only  this,  that  this  pas- 
sage of  Scripture  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
it,  because  in  this  case  the  man  was  anointed 
and  prayed  over  with  the  certain  expectation 
that  he  was  to  live  ;  whereas,  the  official  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  would,  it  is  presumed, 
never  administer  extreme  unction  except  in  a 
case  where  it  was  believed  that  a  man  was  about 
to  die.  It  is  then  administered  as  a  preparation 
for  his  death  ;  whereas,  in  the  case  supposed  by  our 
author,  it  is  administered  as  a  preparation  for 
the  patient's  living. 

DUTY   OF   THE   SICK   PARISHIONER. 

Before  parting  with  this  subject  entirely,  let 
attention  be  called  to  the  fact  that  James  directs 
the  sick  man  to  scndior  the  official  of  his  own  con- 
gregation to  give  him  pastoral  care.  To  us  in  mod- 
ern times,  this  lays  down  a  principle  which  should 
be  duly  considered  by  parishioners  and  their  pas- 
tors. It  is  tJie  duty  of  the  parisJiioner  when  taken 
sick  to  send  for  his  pastor.  It  is  certainly  a  shame 
to  a  Christian  man  to  send  for  his  physician  and  not 


298  The  Gospel  of  Common  Setise. 

send  for  his  pastor.  The  pastor  and  the  phy- 
sician must  each  determine  when  and  how  often 
the  visit  is  to  be  repeated.  It  is  a  very  great  shame 
to  a  parishioner  if  he  complain  that  his  pastor  has 
not  visited  him  in  his  sickness  when  he  has  not 
sent  for  that  pastor.  It  is  a  shame  that  the  in- 
valid depends  upon  the  pastor's  missing  him  from 
the  congregation  and  hunting  him  up  or  upon  the 
pastor's  learning  of  his  sickness  from  some  word 
passing  around  the  church.  It  is  a  shame  if  the 
sick  parishioner  send  for  the  pastor  of  some  other 
congregation.  The  wrong  of  this  lies  in  the  fact, 
that  it  burdens  a  pastor  upon  whom  he  has  no 
claim,  and  hurts  a  pastor  who  has  claims  upon 
him.  No  one  should  remain  in  a  congregation  in 
whose  pastor  he  has  not  such  confidence,  ajid  for 
whom  he  has  not  such  love  as  would  lead  him  to 
desire  to  see  that  pastor  so  soon  as  he  would  de- 
sire to  see  his  physician. 

It  is  a  question  whether  a  pastor  ought  to  go  to 
see  a  parishioner  whom  he  incidentally  learns  to 
be  sick.  If  that  parishioner  has  not  enough  con- 
fidence in  him  and  love  for  him  to  wish  to  see 
him  in  sickness,  why  should  the  pastor  go  .''  Can 
he  do  such  a  patient  any  good  .^ 

Pastors  are  engaged  in  the  cure  of  souls  as 
physicians  are  engaged  in  the  cure  of  bodies. 
When  a  man  is  sick  he  needs  both ;  he  wants  the 
mental  energy  and  the  physical  energ}'-  equally 
stimulated,  helped,  and  guided.     Might  it  not  be 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  299 

wholesome  if  pastors  would  everywhere  announce 
to  their  congregations  that  when  they  hear  of  the 
sickness  of  their  parishioners  they  may  be  most 
careful  to  keep  away  until  sent  for,  although  where 
there  is  no  knowledge  of  sickness  they  might 
incidentally  make  a  call  or  a  visit  ?  It  might  seem 
severe  when  first  inaugurated  ;  but  is  not  this  the 
common-sense  principle,  the  plain  duty  arising  out 
of  the  relationship  ? 

VISITING   THE   SICK. 

Visiting  the  sick  is  a  serious  business,  greatly 
overdone,  to  the  injury  of  hundreds  of  bodies  and 
souls.  Ought  any  one  to  visit  a  sick  person  until 
called  for  ?  is  a  question  really  worth  discussing. 
It  is  quite  certain  that  all  men  ought  not  to  visit 
all  sick  men,  and  that  there  ought  to  be  some 
principle  regulating  this  matter.  It  may  be  a  kind 
of  goodness  of  heart  which  leads  a  man  to  run  in 
and  see  his  acquaintances  who  are  sick ;  but  he 
may  be  the  very  man  between  whom  and  the  sick 
person  there  are  such  physical  and  spiritual 
antagonisms  that  a  visit  from  him  would  increase 
the  sickness  of  the  invalid. 

But  one  thing  seems  to  be  well  settled,  that  the 
initial  motion  is  to  be  upon  the  part  of  the  sick 
man.  "  Is  any  sick,  let  him  call  for  the  Elders." 
Let  him  determine  whom  he  will  have,  and  very 
naturally,  as  a  Christian  man,  he  will  send  for 
those  who  are  the  nearest  akin  to  him  spiritually. 


30O  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

OTHER   DIRECTIONS   FOR   THE   SICK. 

In  immediate  connection  follows  what  is  written 
in  the  three  following  verses,  i6,  17,  18  : 

"  Confess  to  one  another  your  faults  and  pray 
for  one  another,  that  ye  may  be  healed.  Much 
availetJi  the  imvroiight  supplication  of  a  righteous 
man.  Elijah  ivas  a  man  of  like  affections  with  us, 
and  he  prayed  pres singly  that  it  might  not  rain, 
and  it  rained  7iot  on  the  earth  three  years  and  six 
months.  And  again  he  prayed,  and  the  heaven 
gave  rain,  and  the  earth  brought  forth  her  fruit.'' 

This  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  prayer  for 
healing  was  not  to  be  offered  until  the  patient  had 
had  an  interview  with  those  whom  he  had  offended 
and  confessed  his  fault.  This  is  an  important 
consideration  generally  overlooked.  It  is  plain 
that  no  prayer  would  be  of  any  avail  for  an  un- 
confessing,  unrepentant,  uncharitable  patient. 

This  must  be  read  in  strict  connection  with 
what  went  before.  It  is  a  direction  to  a  sick 
man  ;  one  whose  sickness  has  been  brought  on 
by  his  sin,  or  by  some  imprudence  which  preys 
upon  his  mind. 

SICKNESS   PRODUCED   BY   MENTAL   TROUBLE. 

Few  persons  who  have  never  looked  into  it 
know  what  a  large  proportion  of  the  sicknesses  of 
the  world  come  upon  men  because  of  some  men- 
tal irregularity.  Perhaps  they  are  as  many  as 
are  brought  on  by  bodily  excesses.  Even  when 
a  man  is  temperate  in  eating  and  drinking,  and 


The  Gospel  of  Commoji  Sense.  301 

manages  his  whole  physical  economy  after  the 
best  known  laws  of  hygiene,  the  troubles  of  his 
mind  may  make  him  sick.  A  business  loss,  an 
unrequited  love,  a  fractured  friendship,  a  disap- 
pointed hope,  anxiety  about  wealth  or  reputa- 
tion, about  wife  or  child  ;  jealousy,  envy,  malice, 
hatred — any  one  of  these  may  make  a  man  sick. 
No  one  of  delicate  organization  or  good  con- 
science can  have  a  quarrel  with  a  friend  without 
depression  of  his  bodily  health.  The  remem- 
brance of  our  faults  toward  others  —  faults  which 
we  are  too  proud  to  acknowledge,  and  which  we 
defend  in  private  to  ourselves — will  lower  the 
tone  of  a  man's  health. 

CONFESSION. 
The  case  before  us  supposes  a  Christian  who  is 
sick,  and  who  has  committed  no  great  crime,  no 
crying  sin,  but  a  fault  toward  his  brother.  He  is 
the  man  whose  case  was  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding verses.  His  faults  had  brought  him  to 
his  bed,  his  sickness  had  brought  him  to  peni- 
tence ;  he  desires  to  be  forgiven  and  healed.  He 
sends  for  the  Church  officials,  who  use  first  the 
physical  agents  of  remedy  and  then  engage  in 
prayer.  Now,  says  the  Apostle,  "Send  for  your 
brother,  against  whom  you  have  committed  a 
fault.  Confess  your  fault  to  him  ;  perhaps  that 
will  bring  him  to  perceiving  that  he  has  had 
faults  towards  you.  When  you  have  prayed  to- 
gether,  you  for  him  and  he  for  you,  and  have 


302  Tlie  Gospel  of  Couimon  Sense. 

come  to  be  loving  friends  again,  then  all  may  go 
right,  and  the  peace  of  your  mind  will  advance 
the  recovery  of  your  body,  and  so  you  may  be 
healed." 

In  this  whole  matter  of  confession  it  is  impor- 
tant to  guard  against  morbid  feeling  and  mis- 
taken action.  Where  another  is  concerned,  and 
such  a  sin  is  committed  that  the  acknowledg- 
ment to  him  or  to  the  world  would  put  him  in  no 
better  position  than  he  is  now,  why  should  there 
be  any  confession  made  .''  Confession  to  other 
than  the  offended  party,  or  even  to  the  injured 
party,  may  itself  become  injurious  to  a  wide  cir- 
cle. The  confession  should  not  be  made  to  a 
third  party,  but  only  to  the  party  involved  in  the 
difficulty.  Even  a  priest  is  bound  to  refuse  to 
hear  a  "confession"  which  incriminates  an  absent 
party ;  as,  for  instance,  where  a  man  or  woman 
confesses  adultery,  the  confession  may  be  taken 
in  order  that  the  person  confessing  may  receive 
spiritual  direction  and  help,  but  the  partner  in 
the  sin  must  not  be  named,  because  he  or  she  is 
not  present  and  cannot  be  helped  ;  and  the 
pastor  who  would  seek  to  make  the  penitent  re- 
veal the  name  of  the  co-sinner  should  be  con- 
sidered a  scoundrel.  It  is  my  fault  against  my 
brother  which  I  must  confess  to  my  brother  alone. 
That  confession  must  always  be  made  in  a  truly 
devout  spirit  ;  in  a  spirit  consistent  with  acts  of 
prayer.     It    must    not    be    done    perfunctorily, 


The  Gospel  of  Cojnuion  Sense.  303 

merely  to  get  through  a  duty,  but  must  come  from 
the  heart,  just  as  prayer  must  come  from  the 
heart ;  and  must  leave  the  confessor  in  that  state 
of  mind  which  prepares  him  to  go  to  the  Heav- 
enly Father  and  invoke  all  blessings  upon  the 
brother  whom  he  had  offended. 

And  this  points  us  to  the  ethical  lesson  on  the 
other  side,  which  is  often  overlooked.  When  my 
brother  is  convinced  that  he  has  committed  a 
fault  against  me,  and  being  sick  and  unable  to 
visit  me,  sends  for  me  and  begins  to  make  con- 
fession, I  must  not  draw  myself  up  haughtily  and 
tell  him  I  am  glad  he  has  come  to  his  senses  at 
length.  I  must  not  upbraid  him  for  his  fault. 
I  must  listen  very  patiently  and  humbly  to  his 
confession,  examining  my  own  heart  to  see 
whether  there  might  not  have  been  something  in 
my  conduct  to  betray  my  brother  into  his  fault, 
and  whether,  also,  I  may  not  have  so  resented 
his  fault  as  to  be  betrayed  by  indignation  into 
a  fault  on  my  own  part. 

I  must  listen  with  the  greatest  gladness,  seeing 
that  he  has  been  brought  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to 
such  a  state  ;  and  I  must  earnestly  desire  to  be 
in  as  proper  a  moral  position  toward  him.  If  all 
this  be  done,  then,  immediately  after  confession 
will  follow  forgiveness  and  prayer.  He  that 
had  done  the  wrong  and  he  that  had  received  it 
will  pray  each  for  the  other,  and  there  will  be 
real,  unaffected  love;  and  a  state  of  love  amongst 


304  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

all  Christians  is  that  which  every  man  who  loves 
our  Lord  Christ  does  most  intensely  long  for. 
LIMITATIONS. 

It  would  seem  that  we  must  still  read  what  is 
written  as  bearing  upon  the  case  of  a  sick  man, 
whose  sickness  has  been  brought  on  by  sin,  and 
who  sends  for  the  Elders  of  his  congregation  to 
come  and  pray  for  his  healing.  All  prayer  is  of 
avail,  because  prayer  is  the  communion  of  the 
soul  with  God  ;  and  any  man  at  any  time  may 
pray  for  a  spiritual  blessing.  It  is  always  right 
for  any  man  to  pray  for  such  things  as  are  dis- 
tinctly promised  in  the  Holy  Scripture.  Now 
the  healing  of  every  sick  man  is  not  so  promised. 
The  prayer  for  the  healing  of  a  sick  man  is  a 
very  special  kind  of  prayer.  It  is  not  to  be  pre- 
sented to  Almighty  God,  unless  the  one  who 
presents  it,  has  wrought  in  him  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  a  conviction  that  in  this  case  God  intends 
to  raise  the  man  up.  This  seems  a  very  impor- 
tant and  much-overlooked  matter.  In  a  case  of 
prayer-healing  there  are  three  factors  necessary : 
(i)  A  righteous  man  to  pray  ;  (2)  his  offer  of 
prayer  ;  (3)  that  the  prayer  should  be  the  prod- 
uct of  some  revelation  from  God,  or  powerful 
conviction  in  man's  mind  wrought  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  that  He  intends  to  heal  the  sick  man. 
ELIJAH'S  PRAYERS. 

It  is  plainly  not  God's  intention  to  heal  all  the 
sick  men  or  to  feed  all  the  hungry  people  by  spe- 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  305 

cial  or  miraculous  intervention.  Widows  and 
widows  were  in  Israel  in  the  days  of  Elijah,  and 
yet  he  was  sent  only  to  a  widow  of  Zarepta. 
There  were  sick  people  in  multitudes  in  the  time 
of  the  Apostles,  and  yet  the  Apostles  were 
directed  to  heal  only  a  few  such,  and  in  every 
case  there  seemed  to  be  special  antecedent  direc- 
tion as  to  which  persons  were  to  be  restored  to 
health.  They  "  looked  upon"  the  sick;  it  seemed 
to  be  a  searching  gaze  in  which  there  came  to 
them  the  conviction  that  there  was  a  case  for 
which  healing  prayer  might  be  made,  failing 
which  connection  the  prayer  was  not  to  be 
offered.  All  true  prayer  brings  some  spiritual 
blessing  somewhere,  but  the  prayers  which  are 
to  affect  the  material  world  are  "inwrought" 
prayers.  All  Elijah's  prayers  for  Israel  brought 
some  blessings.  But  the  cases  cited  by  J  AMES 
were  cases  of  "inwrought"  prayer,  and  because 
they  so  especially  illustrated  the  profound  mean- 
ing of  our  author,  it  maybe  well  that  we  enter 
upon  an  examination  of  them. 

While  James  tells  us  that  Elijah  prayed  "  press- 
ingly  '■'  that  it  might  not  rain,  we  learn  from  the 
Scriptures  (i  Kings  17)  that  that  prayer  was 
founded  upon  a  revelation  from  Jehovah,  that  He 
who  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  and  who  operates  all 
the  forces  of  nature  incessantly,  would  withhold 
rain  until  Elijah  should  call  for  it,  so  that  Elijah 
could  go  and  stand  before  Ahab  and  say,  "  As 


3o6  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

Jehovah,  God  of  Israel,  liveth,  before  whom  I 
stand,  there  shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years, 
but  according  to  my  word."  If  his  conviction  had 
not  been  founded  on  the  word  of  God,  his  speech 
to  the  king  would  not  only  have  been  impertinent 
impudence  but  also  outrageous  blasphemy.  He 
had  determined  that  his  word  should  be  according  to 
the  word  of  Jehovah.  So,  after  the  lapse  of  years, 
we  have  that  thrilling  description  of  Elijah,  with 
the  priests  of  Baal  assembled  on  Carmel,  settling 
allegiance  by  the  test  of  the  God  who  should 
answer  prayer.  It  was  after  the  decision  of  that 
question  that  Elijah  went  up  to  the  top  of  Carmel, 
and  cast  himself  down  upon  the  earth,  and  put  his 
face  between  his  knees  ;  but  it  was  before  that 
decision  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  had  come  to 
Elijah,  saying,  "  Go  show  thyself  unto  Ahab,  and 
I  shall  send  rain  upon  the  earth." 

In  both  cases,  the  case  of  the  drought  and  the 
case  of  the  rain,  there  was  in  Elijah  an  "  in- 
wrought "  prayer,  inwrought  by  the  Spirit  and  the 
word  of  the  Lord.  The  energy  in  this  case  was  in 
the  word  of  the  Lord  that  came  to  the  man  before 
he  prayed,  not  in  the  prayer,  although  it  was  a 
"  pressing  "  prayer,  and  the  prayer  was  not  less 
pressing  because  it  was  made  upon  the  promise  ; 
on  the  contrary,  the  very  foundation  which  the 
promise  afforded  imparted  increased  energy  to  the 
prayer.  A  man  who  in  our  day  should  undertake 
to  shut  off  rain  for  three  years  and  then  set  open 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  307 

the  fountains  of  the  clouds  would  be  a  mere 
fanatic.  So  would  be  any  man  who  went  about 
to  pray  for  the  absolute  and  immediate  healing  of 
every  sick  man  without  a  warrant  from  God. 
Does  the  Lord  now  ever  give  such  a  conviction  ? 
There  are  cases  so  well  attested  that  we  must 
believe  He  sometimes  does.  Notwithstanding  the 
irregularities,  the  fanaticisms,  the  fooleries,  and 
the  frauds  attendant  upon  so  much  of  the  so-called 
faith  cures,  we  must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be 
carried  away  from  a  common-sense  view  of  the 
truths  revealed  in  the  Sacred  Scripture. 
INWROUGHT  PRAYER. 
God  hath  ordained  prayer.  It  must  therefore 
be  His  intention  that  prayer  shall  be  profitable. 
He  has  directed  the  modes  of  prayer  which  will  be 
acceptable  to  Him.  He  has  indicated  the  fields 
of  prayer  in  which  it  may  be  cultivated.  He  has 
afforded  specific  promises.  On  those  promises 
we  may  confidently  come  to  Him  in  prayer.  The 
history  of  exceptional  cases  in  which  the  Spirit  of 
God  seems  to  have  made  a  powerful  impression 
on  the  spirits  of  intelligent,  unfanatic,  devout,  and 
obedient  Christian  souls,  and  the  answers  by  which 
such  "  inwrought "  prayers  have  been  followed,  do 
all  confirm  the  faith  of  simple-hearted  people. 
We  are  to  pray  for  one  another,  and  always  pray 
in  most  humble  submission  to  the  will  of  God. 
When  the  prayers  are  made  for  other  than  such 
spiritual  things  as  are  covenanted  in  the  explicit 


3o8  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

promises  of  Holy  Scripture,  we  may  not  go  around 
praying  for  every  sick  man,  whether  he  be  penitent 
or  impenitent,  faithful  or  reprobate,  nor  pray  in 
such  a  manner  as  would  indicate  that  we  are  seek- 
ing to  have  our  wills  overrule  the  will  of  Almighty 
God. 

A  case  like  this  can  readily  be  supposed.  A 
man  devoutly  engaged  in  the  service  of  God  is 
sick.  He  has  peace  with  God.  He  could  die  in 
the  odor  of  sanctity  and  the  triumphs  of  faith.  If 
I  had  command  of  all  the  forces  in  the  universe  I 
might  bring  that  man  up  from  his  sickness  into 
high  health,  and  he  might  go  into  such  courses 
as  would  be  fatal  to  him  and  destructive  to  so- 
ciety. That  I  might  not  be  able  to  foresee  ;  but 
God  knows  all  things.  It  maybe  utterly  imprac- 
ticable to  answer  both  prayers,  the  prayer  for  the 
restoration  of  his  health  and  the  prayer  for  the 
salvation  of  his  soul.  Restoration  to  health  would 
be  ruin,  the  salvation  of  his  soul  means  death. 

As  prayer  is  set  forth  in  the  Sacred  Scripture, 
there  is  nothing  in  it  to  contravene  either  science 
or  common  sense.  There  are  few  ways  in  which 
Christians  can  advance  their  religion  more  than 
by  dealing  with  Holy  Scripture  in  the  light  of 
plain  reason  ;  reason  that  is  sanctified  by  humble 
submission  to  the  will  of  God. 

THE  LAST  SENTENCE. 

We  come  now  to  the  last  sentence  in  this  re- 
markable letter  : 


The  Gospel  of  Cojiunoii  Sense.  309 

'*  Brethren,  if  any  among  you  ivander  from  the 
truth  and  any  turn  him  back,  let  him  know  that  he 
who  turneth  back  a  sinner  from  the  zvanderiiig  of 
his  way  shall  save  a  soul  from  death  and  shall 
cover  a  multitude  of  sins." 

While  logically  intimate  with  what  just  precedes 
it,  this  saying  of  the  Apostle  closes  the  circle  of 
his  instructions,  and  sets  before  us  the  loftiest 
employment,  and  the  greatest  enjoyment,  and  the 
noblest  glory  that  can  come  to  humanity.  The 
logical  connection  seems  to  be  this,  that  where 
there  has  been  mutual  confession  after  disagree- 
ments that  were  injurious  to  soul  and  body  and 
prayer  had  been  made  for  each  other,  the  result 
would  be  the  saving  of  a  soul  from  death. 
TRUTH. 

Truth  is  the  purest  thing  in  the  universe. 
Truth  is  the  most  powerful  thing  in  the  universe. 
Truth  is  the  most  enduring  thing  in  the  universe. 
Truth  makes  God  to  be  God,  and  when  God  came 
in  the  flesh,  the  brightest  crown  He  could  place 
upon  His  own  head,  the  noblest  name  He  could 
give  to  His  personality  was  "  The  Truth"  The 
greatest  work  in  which  God  can  be  engaged  is 
the  propagation  of  the  truth.  Truth  to  be  truth, 
must  be  absolutely  unmixed.  There  can  be 
nothing  ugly,  nothing  foul,  nothing  debasing  in 
it.  It  is  the  very  cleanliness  of  cleanliness.  It 
is  flawless  and  spotless.  It  is  this  which  gives  it 
such  force  ;  it   is  this  which  makes  it  so  endur- 


3IO  TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

ing  ;  it  is  this  which  makes  it  so  dear  to  the  holy- 
heart  of  God.  It  is  this  into  which  He  pours  the 
molten  contents  of  His  own  divine  heart.  More 
than  if  He  had  said,  "  I  am  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords  and  the  Judge  of  all  men  "  was  the 
word  which  Jesus  the  Christ  spake  when  He 
said  of  Himself,  "  I  AM  the  truth."  There  was 
nothing  to  which  God  could  be  a  martyr  but  the 
truth,  and  Jesus  said  (John  18:37),  "For  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear 
witness  to  the  truth,"  that  is,  be  "a  martyr  to  the 
truth."  And  when  He  went  away  He  prophesied 
that  His  place  would  be  taken  by  the  "  Spirit  of 
Truth,"  thus  giving  this  name  to  the  Holy- 
Ghost  (John  16:  13). 

WHAT  ERROR  IS. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  all  the  wrongs  in  the  uni- 
verse begin  by  a  wandering  from  the  truth. 
There  never  could  be  sin  which  is  not  preceded 
by  some  divergence  from  the  truth.  This  is  so  in 
every  department  of  human  thought,  emotion  and 
action.  The  word  "  error  "  means  "  wandering"; 
and  so  James  speaks  oi  sifi  as  wandering  from  the 
truth.  It  is  because  the  sin  begins  in  some  slight 
departure,  in  the  man,  from  that  which  is  true, 
leading  to  a  departure  of  the  affections,  which 
produces  a  departure  in  the  outward  life,  that 
men  should  be  strenuously  anxious  to  know  the 
truth,  especially  the  truth  as  to  their  highest 
things,  their  highest  connections  ;  the  truth  as 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  311 

to  God,  the  truth  as  to  their  own  nature,  the 
truth  as  to  their  relations  to  God,  the  truth  as 
to  their  own  character. 

When  men  talk  of  the  valuelessness  of  doctrine, 
and  say  it  does  not  matter  what  a  man  believes 
so  that  his  life  is  right,  they  show  their  absolute 
ignorance  of  tiie  whole  subject.  It  is  as  if  one 
should  say,  it  is  no  matter  what  disease  a  man  has 
so  long  as  he  has  health.  The  outward  life  of  a 
man  is  the  product  of  his  character,  and  his  char- 
acter is  the  product  of  his  creed.  If  there  be  one 
rule  without  an  exception  this  must  be  the  rule. 
It  certainly  is  the  counterpart  in  the  spiritual 
world  of  the  fact  in  physics  that  no  stream  ever 
rises  above  its  source.  Now,  the  source  of  the 
outer  life  is  the  creed.  Nay,  it  is  something  still 
stronger  than  that.  A  man  is  just  what  he  be- 
lieves, no  more,  no  less.  Neither  God  nor  the 
devil  can  make  him  any  more  or  any  less.  To 
make  any  change  in  him  the  good  or  the  bad  need 
not  strive  to  mould  his  outer  life,  or  by  any  other 
process  attempt  to  change  his  character  except 
by  efforts  to  make  a  change  in  his  creed.  If  he 
have  believed  error,  to  make  him  a  good  man  he 
must  be  brought  to  faith  in  the  truth  ;  if  he  have 
such  faith,  to  make  him  a  bad  man  all  that  is 
necessary  is  to  break  the  hold  of  his  faith  on  the 
truth. 

WHAT   CREED   IS. 

"As  a  man  thinks  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  Now 
the  phrase,  "  thinks  in  his  heart,"  is  equivalent  to 


312  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

"  creed,"  creed  being  compounded  of  two  words, 
signifying-  that  form  of  belief  to  which  I  give  my 
heart.  If  any  one  shall  object  to  this  that  there 
are  so  many  who  profess  a  good  creed  and  lead  a 
bad  life,  the  reply  is  ready.  In  such  a  case  the 
creed  is  only  professed,  it  is  not  held.  Indeed,  a 
creed  is  not  that  which  a  man  holds  at  all  ;  it  is 
that  which  holds  him.  When  a  man  once  comes 
into  vital  connection  with  the  creed,  he  is  never 
its  master  ;  it  is  always  his. 

The  objection  to  doctrinal  preaching  has  just 
this  weak  foundation.  There  is  no  preaching  so 
primarily  important  as  doctrinal  preaching.  There 
is  no  knowledge  of  the  Bible  so  important  as  a 
knowledge  of  its  doctrines.  These  are  what  shape 
a  man's  character,  not  the  poetry,  the  beauty,  the 
sublimity  of  the  Bible.  Let  every  man  be  sure 
that  his  principles  are  more  important  than  his 
behavior,  or  than  any  formulated  rules  of  life  he 
may  make.  Indeed  these  rules  will  be  the 
product  of  principles  if  they  have  any  power.  A 
man  who  had  any  principles  might  have  all  the 
rules  of  ethics  committed  to  memory,  and  capable 
of  being  summoned  at  any  moment,  and  yet  they 
would  be  powerful  only  as  founded  upon  principles. 
If  the  man  have  good  rules  and  a  bad  memory, 
his  rules  may  be  forgotten;  but  if  he  have  the 
principles  he  can  on  any  emergency  construct  the 
rule.  This  seems  to  be  as  true  in  the  moral  life 
as    it    is    in    mathematics.      If    a   mathematical 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  313 

principle  be  made  perfectly  familiar  to  the  mind 
of  the  child,  he  may  forget  the  formal  rule  in  his 
arithmetic,  but  this  principle  which  he  knows  will 
enable  him  to  reconstruct  the  rule  whenever 
needed. 

A   GRAND   POSSIBILITY. 

Then  James  points  to  a  grand  possibility.  It 
is  possible  for  one  human  being  to  turn  another 
back  from  his  intellectual  and  moral  and  spiritual 
wanderings  ;  and  this  grand  possibility  ought  to 
make  all  good  men  very  earnest  in  their  anxiety 
to  learn  how  this  is  to  be  done.  Plainly,  it  cannot 
be  done  by  force ;  plainly,  it  cannot  be  done  by 
compressing  a  man's  outward  behavior  by  rules. 
All  persecution  is  impertinent  ;  it  is  out  of  place 
in  a  case  like  this.  There  is  but  one  way  in  which 
this  work  can  be  begun  properly.  As  the  trouble 
was  in  a  man's  wandering  from  the  truth,  the  first 
point  to  be  gained  is  somehow  to  make  a  fresh 
connection  of  that  man's  soul  with  the  truth.  He 
is  as  a  planet  that  hath  broken  away  from  the 
power  of  attraction  and  gone  wildly  off  at  a 
destructive  tangent.  Nothing  can  be  done  for  a 
universe  going  to  chaos  until  a  mode  be  found  by 
which  there  shall  be  a  restoration  of  the  proper 
play  of  attractive  forces.  To  save  a  man,  there- 
fore, he  must  be  brought  under  the  power  of  some 
saving  truth.  It  must  get  the  dominance  of  him, 
and  rule  him  to  that  degree  that  he  will  no  longer 
wander  away. 


314  The  Gospel  of  Cotnmoji  Sense. 

When  He  who  called  Himself  "The  Truth" 
was  offering  to  His  Father  that  sublime  prayer 
with  which  he  closed  His  career  just  before  His  be- 
trayal, He  prayed  for  those  dear  disciples  that  they 
might  be  sanctified  through  "  Thy  Truth."  It  is  a 
blessed  thing  when  such  a  saving  truth  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  a  wandering  soul,  and  thrice 
blessed  is  the  man  who  brings  that  truth  to  bear 
upon  his  fellow-man  by  its  embodiment  in  his  own 
rounded,  beautiful,  truth-ruled  life. 

A   WHOLESOME   REACTION. 

Every  Christian  man  should  engage  all  his 
powers  in  the  work  of  striving  to  save  his  own 
soul  and  the  souls  of  his  fellow-men  ;  not  by  any 
charm,  or  magical  process,  but  by  striving  as  far  as 
possible,  to  bring  wandering  souls  under  the  power 
of  saving  truths.  One  great  stimulus  to  this  work 
is  the  reflection  that  nothing  is  so  saving,  so 
purifying,  so  elevating  to  any  man's  own  soul,  as 
the  work  of  striving  to  save  the  souls  of  other 
men.  We  waste  our  time  in  dreaming  of  heaven 
and  wishing  for  heaven.  The  best  preparation  for 
the  world  to  come  is  the  proper  employment  of 
all  our  powers  in  achieving  the  greatest  things 
possible  to  us  in  this  world.  If  the  brethren  of 
James  had  been  spending  all  their  time  in  bring- 
ing themselves  and  others  under  the  power  of 
sanctifying  truth,  they  would  not  have  needed  a 
single  admonition  contained  in  this  pungent 
epistle.      If    the   whole    Christian   Church    were 


The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  315 

engaged  in  this  work  there  would  be  no  space  nor 
time  for  bickering,  quarrelHng,  persecution,  schism, 
and  all  the  other  wrongs  which  have  stained  the 
history  of  the  Church. 

THE  GRANDEST  HUMAN  WORK. 
Each  Christian  man  is  stimulated  to  this  work, 
because  it  is  the  grandest  possible  to  any  human 
being.  To  know  the  truth  is  the  highest  func- 
tion and  capability  of  the  intellect.  To  bring  the 
truth  to  bear  upon  other  minds,  is  the  loftiest 
and  noblest  exercise  of  man's  moral  powers. 
What  else  is  equal  to  the  achievement  of  saving 
a  soul .-'  Is  the  writing  of  a  poem  ?  Is  the  carving 
of  a  statue  .-'  Is  the  painting  of  a  picture  ?  Is  the 
erection  of  a  monument  ?  Is  the  creation  of  a 
reputation  ?  All  these  things  will  perish.  When 
Napoleon  was  told  by  the  painter  that  the  canvas 
would  carry  his  portrait  down  five  centuries,  he 
exclaimed,  "  Is  this  all?"  His  mind  was  com- 
prehensive enough  to  see  that,  in  comparison 
with  the  aeons,  cycles  and  eternities  of  the  future, 
five  hundred  years  were  an  insignificant  portion 
of  time. 

SOUL-DEATH. 
The  Holy  Scriptures  speak  of  the  deaf  A  of  the 
soul ;  "  the  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die."  That 
fact,  which  never  could  have  been  ascertained 
without  a  direct  revelation  from  Him  who  knows 
eternity,  is  imparted  to  us  without  any  definite 
explanations  of  the  modes  and  meanings  of  this 


3i6  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

death.  We  learn  from  nature  that  a  body  may 
die.  We  learn  from  revelation  that  a  soul  may 
die.  We  learn  from  nature  that  a  sick  body  may 
be  recovered.  We  learn  from  revelation  that  a 
sick  soul  may  be  healed.  As  there  are  physical 
remedies  for  bodily  diseases,  there  is  a  spiritual 
remedy  for  soul  maladies.  That  remedy  is  the 
truth.  Only  as  a  man  is  sanctified  in  the  truth 
can  he  come  into  soul  health;  and,  if  he  remain  in 
soul  sickness,  he  must  eventually  die  a  soul  death, 
whatever  that  is.  What  that  terrible  catastro- 
phe is,  who  can  comprehend  .-'  The  Scriptures 
tells  us  the  fact,  and  leave  us  with  a  dim  intima- 
tion of  all  its  dreadful  accessories.  Now,  to  bring 
a  soul  back  from  its  wanderings  to  the  truth, 
that  is  to  Christ,  is  to  secure  for  that  soul  eternal 
life,  which  "  is  a  gift  of  God  through  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord."  Out  of  material  things  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  construct  an  enduring  monument  ;  but  he 
that  hath  saved  a  soul  from  death  has  secured 
one  thing  permanent  through  eternity.  There 
can  not  be  any  other  work  so  grand  as  this. 
There  cannot  be  any  other  work  that  myriads 
of  years  from  this  time  shall  give  such  profound 
satisfaction  as  to  save  a  soul  from  death. 
COVERING  SIN. 
Error  and  truth  are  polar  extremes,  like  life 
and  death.  The  one  thing  that  irradiates  the 
universe  is  truth  ;  the  one  thing  which  is  a  dark 
spot  upon  the  universe  is  sin.     It  ir.  the  one  thing 


TJie  Gospel  of  Common  Sense.  317 

which  God  abhors  ;  He  cannot  tolerate  it. 
"Now,"  says  JAMES,  "when  one  converts  a  sin- 
ner from  the  error  of  his  ways,  he  not  only  saves 
a  soul  from  death,  but  he  hides  a  multitude  of 
sins."  This  word  "cover,"  or  "hide,"  is  a  biblical 
phrase,  first  in  the  Old  Testament  and  then  in 
the  New,  to  signify  forgiveness,  as  when  (Ps.  32  : 
i)it  is  written,  "  Blessed  is  he  whose  transgres- 
sion is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered."  This 
Hebrew  parallelism  shows  us  that  "covering" 
means  "forgiving"  when  it  is  the  act  of  God. 
"  He  that  hideth  his  own  sin  shall  not  prosper," 
but  he  whose  sin  God  puts  out  of  sight  and  out 
of  remembrance,  is  a  happy  man.  And  so  any 
sinner  may  pray,  "  Hide  Thy  face  from  my  sins 
and  blot  out  all  mine  iniquities."  It  is  a  truth 
old  as  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  "  that  love  covereth 
all  sins"  (10:  12);  a  truth  which  is  repeated 
by  an  Apostle,  "Charity  shall  cover  a  multitude 
of  sins "  (i  Peter  4  :  8).  To  the  man  whose 
whole  nature  is  turned  about,  who,  instead  of 
wandering,  that  is  to  say,  leading  a  lawless  life, 
is  brought  under  the  guiding  and  sustaining 
power  of  a  saving  truth,  the  sins  of  the  past  are 
forgiven,  many  or  few,  light  or  grave,  for  there 
comes  to  him  the  complete  forgiveness  of  the 
Divine  Father. 

There  is  something  more  stimulating  than 
that.  If  I  let  my  neighbor  go  on  in  sin  I  must 
remind  myself  of  the  reduplicating  power  of  sin- 


3i8  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

fulness  ;  how  it  grows,  how  "one  sinner  destroys 
much  good,"  how  one  sinner  makes  many  sinners, 
some  of  whom  are  tenfold  worse  than  himself. 
Let  any  one  consider  for  a  moment  what  might 
have  been  the  increased  badness  of  the  world  if 
Paul,  or  Augustine,  or  John  Newton,  or  any  other 
sinner  who  has  been  "plucked  as  the  brand  out  of 
the  burning"  had  not  been  converted  when  he 
was  converted,  but  had  gone  on  to  an  old  age  in- 
creasing the  number  and  influence  of  his  own 
sins,  and  multiplying  corrupting  agencies  in  the 
community.  What  is  not  seen  cannot  be  well 
calculated.  If  the  conversion  had  not  taken 
place  the  injuriousness  of  each  man's  life  would 
have  been  very  manifest  to  the  world.  What  he 
was  saved  from  doing  by  his  conversion  can 
never  be  known  ;  but  a  sober  calculation  of  the 
probabilities  can  be  made  from  what  is  known  of 
the  life  when  it  was  bad. 

TRUE  LIBERTY. 
If  a  man  shall  convert  his  neighbor  from  the 
error  of  his  ways  the  good  that  neighbor  shall  do 
after  his  conversion  will  become  known  to  the 
world  in  some  measure.  But  all  the  sins  he  would 
have  committed  but  for  the  conversion  would  be 
covered  up  and  hidden  away  from  human  eyes. 
With  these  two  things  before  us,  namely,  the  pre- 
vention of  a  life  of  sinfulness,  a  thing  so  offensive 
to  our  Heavenly  Father,  and  the  production  of  a 
life  radiant  in  truth,  which  is  so  delightful  to  our 


The  Gospel  of  Conimoii  Sefise.  319 

Heavenly  Father,  the  one  fjrcat  work  ought  to 
be  (to  every  moral  man,  to  every  man  capable 
of  ethicalideas,  to  every  man  who  applies  his 
common  sense  to  the  problems  of  human  life  and 
human  destiny  )  the  turning  away  of  men  from 
their  wanderings,  and  fixing  them  in  the  realm, 
under  the  reign,  of  moral  law.  There,  and  there 
only,  is  liberty  ;  liberty  for  which  millions  of  souls 
have  sighed;  liberty  for  which  millions  of  men 
have  died.  Liberty,  in  whose  name,  as  the  dying 
Mme.  Roland  said,  so  many  crimes  had  been 
committed,  real,  manly,  moral,  intellectual,  spir- 
itual liberty,  is  secured  only  to  the  man  who  has 
been  converted  from  the  error  of  his  ways  by  a 
conversion  from  the  error  of  his  thoughts.  Even 
as  James's  great  brother  said,  "  Ye  shall  know 
the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free." 

To  secure  personal  and  civil  liberty  what  have 
not  men  endured  of  hunger,  and  thirst,  and  ship- 
wreck, and  imprisonment,  and  betrayal,  and 
scourging,  and  torture,  and  death.''  With  the 
increase  of  the  ages  grows  the  glowing  fame  of 
men  who  have  "  made  way  for  liberty,"  even  when 
those  men  have  been  fighting  and  dying  for  only 
personal  and  civil  liberty,  themselves  often  the 
most  abject  slaves  of  tyrannical  sinfulness,  like 
Danton  and  Robespierre  and  other  wretched 
leaders  of  French  revolution,  and  more  modern 
agitators  of  society,  who  have  yet  to  learn  the 
first  letters  in  the  alphabet  of  freedom,  till  they 


320  The  Gospel  of  Common  Sense. 

shall  rise  to  know  that  law  is  as  essentially  the 
basis  of  liberty  as  life  is  the  basis  of  feeling. 
IMMORTAL  FAME. 
Can  any  human  being  do  too  much  to  secure 
the  lives,  the  liberties,  the  fortunes  of  human 
souls  ?  To  such  men  not  any  monuments  are 
erected  upon  earth,  but  there  is  immortal  fame 
for  them  in  eternity,  because  they  wrought  to 
secure  souls  from  death  and  keep  those  souls  in 
liberty.  Does  any  one  wonder  that  a  man  with 
such  great  intellect  as  the  Apostle  Paul  turned 
aside  from  every  path  of  human  ambition  to  walk 
this  way  of  usefulness,  although  it  led  him  through 
all  kinds  of  difficulties  down  to  martyrdom  ?  The 
wonder  is  that  in  every  age  there  are  not  more 
to  imitate  that  member  of  the  early  Christian 
Church  who  sold  himself  as  a  slave  to  a  heathen 
family  that  he  might  gain  access  to  it.  That 
family,  in  reward  of  faithful  labor  amongst  them 
and  their  conversion  to  the  truth,  set  him  free. 
He  used  his  freedom  only  for  the  purpose  of  sav- 
ing souls  from  death  and  hiding  a  multitude  of 
sins,  and  so,  sold  himself  again  a  slave  to  the 
Governor  of  Sparta,  with  like  success  and  fresh 
trophies  to  the  cause  of  truth.  Let  that  man 
consider  himself  very  small,  whatever  be  the 
amount  of  his  brains  and  his  financial  fortune, 
whatever  be  the  sphere  of  his  operations,  what- 
ever be  the  measure  of  his  earthly  success,  whose 
life  is  not  laid  out  in  any  sphere  of  science,  politics, 


The  Gospel  of  Co  inn  ion   Sense.  321 

merchandise,  or  social  life,  to  the  great  work  of 
turning  himself  and  his  fellow-men  away  from 
their  errors  back  to  the  truth. 

We  can  scarcely  conceive  the  permanency  of 
our  identity  without  the  continuance  of  our  mem- 
ory. If  a  man  in  passing  into  another  sphere, 
could  drink,  at  the  gate  of  the  new  department, 
some  nepenthe  which  should  make  him  forget  all 
that  is  past,  while  he  would  appear  to  some  ex- 
ternal eye  to  be  the  same  person,  he  himself 
would  have  no  consciousness  of  identity  with  the 
man  who  had  crossed  that  portal.  If  a  man  is  to 
exist  millions  of  years  after  his  death,  if  one  can 
speak  of  years  in  considering  the  admeasurements 
of  eternity,  to  be  himself  ho  must  be  able  to  re- 
member himself.  Let  a  man  now  think  what  will 
probably  be  the  precious  things  of  memory  a 
myriad  of  years  hence,  when  all  the  present  state 
of  terrestrial  affairs  shall  have  passed  away,  all 
its  history  destroyed,  all  its  monuments  forgotten. 
Will  it  be  the  accumulation  of  a  few  poor,  pitiful 
millions  of  dollars,  most  of  which  he  could  not 
use  even  while  in  the  flesh  .''  Will  it  be  that  his 
name  was  in  the  newspapers  of  his  day  .''  Will  it 
be  that  he  had  a  momentary  thrill  of  physical  en- 
joyment }  What  will  it  be  ?  If,  amid  all  these 
things,  he  was  ever  able  to  turn  one  soul  from  the 
error  of  his  way,  and  stopped  and  dried  up  a 
stream  of  sin,  and  brought  that  soul  into  the  pos- 
session of  eternal    life,  will   not   the  memory  of 


322  The   Gospel  of  Couiiiwn  Sense. 

that  in  the  world  to  come  be  to  the  man  some- 
thing in  value  outweighing  all  thrones  and 
crowns  and  sceptres  and  terrestrial  palaces  ? 

With  the  suggestion  of  such  a  sublime  possibil- 
ity, our  author  concludes  his  epistle.  He  lifts  us 
from  the  low  conception  of  ethics  as  being  some- 
thing which  furnishes  rules  for  the  regulation  of  a 
little  life,  and  places  us  and  sets  it  in  the  light  of 
its  true  relation  with  the  things  which  are  unseen 
and  eternal. 


"Sunshine  forDark  Hours," 

By  CHIRLES  F.  DEEMS,  D.D..  LL.D., 

Author   nf  "Weights  and  Wings,"  "I Inme   Altar,"   etc., 
xnd  Editor  of  " Christian  Thought." 


A  book  for  invalids.  Tlie  matter  of  this 
book  is  drawn  from  a  wide  range  of  reading, 
observation  and  experience,  and  is  a  genu- 
ine aid  to  contentment,  comfort  and  relief. 

The  tone  of  the  book  is  indicative  of 
strength  gained  by  submission,  an  entire 
and  liearty  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God. 
It  will  brighten  dark  hours.  If  you  have 
sick  friends  brighten  their  rooms  and  hearts 
by  sending  a  copy  of  this  good  and  helpful 
book.  It  is  printed  in  large  type  and  clear 
page,  and  is  particularly  adapted  to  the  in- 
valid. 

Price,  25  Cents,  By  Mail,  30  Cents. 
wTlBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Pnblisher, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


-BY- 
CHARLES  F.  DEEMS,  D.D.,  LL  D., 

Pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Strangers.    Author  of^'  Weights 

and  Wings,"  "Home  Altar,'"  etc.,  and  Editor  of 

"Christian  Thought.'" 


PARTIAL  LIST  OF  SERMONS. 

Christianity  Confronting  Frivolous  Skep- 
ticism. Are  Cliristians  Narrow?  A  Des- 
picable Minister.  No  Room  for  Jesus.  Trin- 
ity of  Excellence.  What  Jesus  saw  from 
the  Cross.  Christ's  Cure  for  Trouble. 
Christ's  Pledge.  The  Memorial  Supper. 
Characteristics  of  a  Sinful  Life.  Secret 
Discipleship.  Reconciliation.  Influence 
of  Christianity  on  Life. 

TJie  Baltimore  Episcopal  Methodist  says  : 
— We  welcome  them  with  much  pleasure, 
and  commend  them  to  our  readers  and  the 
Christian  public  generally.  They  are  sound 
in  doctrine,  chaste  and  beautiful  in  style, 
thoroughly  evangelical,  and  eminently 
practical. 

8  vo.,  Cloth.     304  pages.      Price,  $1.50. 

WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Pnblislier, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


THE  GOSPEL  IN  NATURE 

By  II.  C.  McCOOK,  D.D., 

Vice-President  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia, 

Author  nf  "Agricultural  Ant  of  Texas,"  "Tenants 

of  an  Old  Farm."  and*' The  Honey  and 

Occident  Ants." 


A  series  of  popular  discourses  on  Scrip- 
ture trutlis  derived  from  facts  in  nature. 

N.  Y.  Observer  says : — They  are  written 
somewhat  in  the  vein  of  Professor  Drum- 
mond's  "  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual 
World,"  and  will  be  welcomed  by  intelli- 
gent readers  who  are  awake  to  the  discus- 
sion which  is  going  on  in  the  world  over 
the  Book  of  Books  and  the  Book  of  Nature. 

Interior. — The  author  ranges  through 
earth  and  air,  finding  exemplifications  of 
the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  Almigiity 
Creator  in  the  hail  and  snow,  the  rain  and 
the  rainbow,  flowers  and  vines,  and  show- 
ing both  forcibly  and  beautifully,  how  the 
elements  of  nature  can  be  used  to  ilhistrate 
and  work  out  the  Divine  Will,  and  the 
knowledge  of  that  will  toward  man. 

John  Hall,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Fifth. 
Avenue  Presbyterian  Chnrch,  Neio  York. — 
"It  takes  familiar  facts  from  the  works  of 
God  and  employs  them,  with  learning  and 
devoutness,  for  the  illustration  of  vital 
truths,  only  learned  from  tlie  word  of  God. 
Dr.  McCook  has  here,  as  elsewhere,  used 
his  talent  for  natural  history  wisely  and 
effectively;  and  his  work  is  practical  and 
adapted  to  our  times. 

12  mo.,  Cloth,    380  pp.    Price  $1.25  net. 

WILBUR  B-lETCHliTPiibiisiiei^ 

13  Cooper  TJnion,  New  York. 


FAIRY  TALES 

— OF— 

BEING 

POPULAR     SCIENTIFIC     PAPERS, 

BY 

Rev.  J.  GORDON  McPHERSON, 

Author  of  ''  Strathmore :   Past  and  Present,"    "  Supersti- 
tion and  Scepticism,"  Etc. 


The  author  has  "the  way  of  putting"  the 
technical  language  of  specialists  so  as  to 
present  the  result  of  their  inquiries  in  forms 
likely  to  convey  instruction  to  the  general 
reader.  To  men  who  lived  fifty  j^ears  ap,o 
an  account  of  these  wonderful  discoveries 
would  have  read  like  so  many  'fairy  tales," 
hence  the  title.  The  index  is  ])articularly 
full,  in  order  that  reference  to  details  may 
be  most  convenient.  It  will  prove  a  help- 
ful book  to  all,  particularly  to  the  clergy  as 
a  book  from  which  many  illustrations  can 
be  cidled. 

Among  the  many  subjects  are  the  follow- 
ing: "Formation  of  Dew,''  "Color  of 
Water,"  "Dust  and  Fogs,"  "Sun  Sjiots," 
"  The  Universal  Day,"  "  Counting  of  Dust- 
Particles  in  Air,"  "Bright  Clouds  on  a 
Dark  Night-Sky,"  "Water  Pipesand  Frost," 
etc.,  etc., 

12  mo.,  Cloth,  277  Pages.     Price,  $1.25. 

WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Publisher, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New^  York. 


OTJE  EEST  DAY, 

ITS    ORIGIN,     HISTORY,     AND     CLAIMS,     WITH 
••   SPECIAL  REFERENCE   TO  PRESENT 
DAY  NEEDS. 


THOMAS  HAMILTOH,  D.  D. 

Tlie  New  York  Christian  Advocate  says: 
In  the  book  we  find  tlie  entire  subject  of 
"Sabbath  observance"  most  thoroughly  and 
candidly  considered.  All  the  popular  argu- 
ments for  relaxation  of  the  plain  Bible  com- 
mand are  met  and  treated  at  length.  The 
chapters  are  headed,  '-How  Old  Art  Thou  ?" 
"Traces  of  the  Sabbath  in  Ancient  Lands  and 
Literature,"  "A  Curious  Theory," '  'The  Sab- 
bath not  a  Jewish  Institution,"  The  Deca- 
logue and  the  Sabbath,"  "Christ  and  the  Sab- 
bath," "TheApostlesaudtheSabbath,"  "The 
Change  of  Day,"  The  Church  of  Rome  and 
the  Sabbath."  and  then  the  author  turns  to 
the  various  methods  of  trade  and  amuse- 
ment to  infringe  upon  the  "Rest  Day."  Two 
chapters  have  been  added  upon  "How  the 
Conflict  Goes  On,"  and  "The  Conclusion  of 
the  Whole  Matter."  Anj'  one  who  wishes 
information  upon  this  subject,  now  one  of 
tlie  foremost  in  popular  interest,  will  find 
this  little  book  of  practical  value. 

liev.  C.  H.  Sjmnjeou  says:  "Other  works 
have  been  good,  but  none  could  have  been 
better.  It  is  as  interesting  as  it  is  instruct- 
ive, and  we  give  it  our  hearty  praise." 

12  mo.   Cloth,    185  pp.,  Price,  75  Cents. 

WILBUR  B.  KETCHAM,  Publisher, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


THE  KING'S  SON 

OR, 

A  MEMOIE  OF  BILLY  BRAY, 

By  F.  W.  BOURNE. 


The  Neio  York  Christian  Advocate  says  : 
—"Of  Billy  Bray,  the  famous  Metliodist 
preacher  of  Cornwall,  Eng.,  it  may  be  truly 
said  ''he  yet  speaketh,"  although  he  has 
been  dead  more  than  twenty  years.  It  is 
reported  that  at  least  six  hundred  persons 
are  known  to  have  been  led  to  Christ  by 
reading  his  biography.  These  converts  are 
found  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  come 
from  almost  every  position  in  life.  Noted 
infidels,  eminent  formalists,  and  cultivated 
scholars,  as  well  as  obscure  and  unlearned 
men,  have  been  drawn  into  the  kingdom  of 
grace  by  this  fascinating  story.  The  most 
noted  preacher  of  the  age  frequently  finds 
the  striking  illustrations  which  enrich  his 
sermons  in  the  Life  of  Billy  Bray." 

TWENTY-SEVENTH  EDITION  NOW  READY. 

18  mo.,  Cloth.     119  pp.    Price,  50  Cents. 

WILBUR  B,  KETCHAM,  Pflbllsiier, 

13  Cooper  Union,  New  York. 


' ;  >>'y>''>'^  ^^^^^^K>y»*»*>^-**'•'►■•■>>■>■*■>-'-'•' 


